WAP    27    1994 


OGfCALSt*;!^ 


THE  MODERN  PULPIT 


THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

A   Study   of   Homiletic    Sources 
AND  Characteristics 


BY 


LEWIS   O.    BRASTOW: 

PROFESSOR   OF   PRACTICAL   THEOLOGY 
YALE   UNIVERSITY 


'^     NC  V-   :;  1911 


,   D^D^l^iii^'^^- 


HODDER  &  STOUGHTON 

NEW  YORK 

GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


CorVRlGHT,    1906, 

By  the  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  October,  1906.     Reprinted 
July,  1910. 


J.  8.  Gushing  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 
Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


In  compliance  with  current 
copyright  law,  LBS  Archival 

Products  produced  this 

replacement  volume  on  paper 

that  meets  the  ANSI  Standard 

Z39.48-1984  to  replace  the 

irreparably  deteriorated 

original. 

1993 

(00) 


INSCRIBED 

TO   THE   MEMORY   OF  THREE   PREACHERS 
AND   RELIGIOUS   TEACHERS   OF   THE   FIRST   RANK 

GEORGE   WARREN   FIELD,   GEORGE   SHEPHERD 

AND 

SAMUEL   HARRIS 

IN  AFFECTIONATE   AND    GRATEFUL   REMEMBRANCE 

OF  THEIR   INSPIRATION   AND   GUIDANCE 

IN  THE  author's   EARLIER 

YEARS 


PREFACE 

The  title  of  this  volume  will  readily  suggest  its  object. 
It  is  an  attempt  to  interpret  the  preaching  of  our  day. 
It  undertakes  to  get  back  of  it,  into  its  sources,  to  char- 
acterize its  distinctive  peculiarities  and  to  estimate  its 
value.  In  "  Representative  Modern  Preachers,"  pub- 
lished two  years  ago,  the  author  invited  attention  to  a 
few  prominent  preachers  of  different  schools,  as  concrete 
exemplifications  of  the  preaching  of  the  last  century. 
The  present  volume  is  more  fundamental  and  compre- 
hensive and  may  be  regarded  as  supplemental.  It 
would  look  at  the  preaching  of  our  day  in  the  light  of 
those  chief  agencies  of  the  modern  world  that  have 
powerfully  affected  it.  Influences  that  were  active  in 
the  last  century  and  in  the  century  preceding,  and 
that  have  revolutionized  it,  are  analyzed  and  classified; 
qualities  that  are  prominent  in  it,  distinctive  of  it,  and 
common  to  it,  are  summarized  ;  and  the  field  of  concrete 
illustration  is  greatly  enlarged. 

It  is  the  Protestant  pulpit  that  furnishes  the  material 
of  our  investigation.  For  it  is  Protestantism  only  that 
in  the  fullest  sense  may  be  said  to  have,  either  in  theory 
or  in  fact,  a  modern  pulpit.  The  preaching  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  is  not  underestimated,  nor  its 
value  minimized.  It  has  notable  merits  of  its  own  and 
is  worthy  of  careful  study.  It  often  reaches  a  great 
height  of  artistic  excellence,  as  well  as  of  moral  and 
spiritual  power.  But  it  has  no  time-spirit.  It  assumes 
to  be  superior  to  modern  Ufe.  It  would  dominate  the 
modern  world,  not  be  dominated  by  it.  Of  course  it 
must  adjust  itself  to  what  is  temporal,  and  in  much  it 


viii  PREFACE 

is  really  as  modern  as  the  Protestant  pulpit.  But  its 
claim  to  be  superior  to  temporary  influences  is  measur- 
ably justified,  and  it  shares  the  fortunes  of  a  church 
that  would  be,  like  its  founder,  "the  same  yesterday, 
to-day,  and  forever." 

The  French  Protestant  pulpit  is  not  included  in  our 
investigation.  This  implies  no  underestimate  of  its  sig- 
nificance and  value.  It  is  due  to  the  author's  inadequate 
acquaintance  with  its  modern  aspects. 

The  difificulties  of  his  task  and  the  inadequacy  of  its 
realization  are  fully  recognized  by  the  author.  It  is  a 
large  generalization,  and  a  sense  of  insufficiency  is 
inevitable  both  for  reader  and  writer.  But  in  a  field 
hitherto  but  little  worked,  one  may  make  a  venture  even 
without  the  assurance  of  supreme  success.  Full  access 
at  first  hand  to  all  the  material  with  which  the  volume 
deals  cannot,  of  course,  be  claimed.  But  with  most  of 
the  preachers  of  the  last  century  and  of  our  own  day,  to 
whom  reference  has  been  made,  he  is  fairly  familiar  at 
first  hand. 

Many  distinguished  names  that  are  an  honor  to  the 
modern  pulpit  are  reluctantly  omitted  from  these  pages. 
Exclusion  has  been  a  difficult  task.  But  limitations  of 
personal  acquaintance  and  the  limits  of  the  volume  must 
justify  it. 

Despite  the  largeness  of  his  venture  and  the  defects* 
of  its  execution,  the  writer  is  not  without  hope  that 
it  may  become  tributary  in  some  measure  to  a  better 
knowledge  of  what  lies  back  of  the  preaching  of  our 
day  and  to  a  somewhat  more  intelligent  estimate  of  its 
value.  With  this  desire  at  least  he  commits  his  venture 
to  whatever  fortunes  may  await  it. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER   I 

P*REPARATrVE  INFLUENCES  OF  THE   EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

1 

Confessional   preaching    as    an    inheritance   from    the   post- 
Reformation  period ;    its    material  and  formal  qualities 
revolutionary  agencies     ...... 

I.    Religious  influences  that  wrought  in  reform     . 

1.  The  Spener  movement  in  Germany     . 
^2.   The  Puritan  and  Methodist  movement  in  England 

3.  The  Secession  movement  in  Scotland 

4.  The  American  revival  movement   under  Edwards 

5.  French  Protestant  influences       .... 
II.   New  movements  of  intellectual  life  .... 

^\ .  Naturalism  in  England  and  Moderatism  in  Scotland 

2.  Scepticism  in  France  .         ..... 

3.  Infidelity  in  America  ...... 

4.  Rationalism  and  philosophic  lUuminism  in  Germany 

Twofold  result   upon   preaching  of  movements   of 
thought  convergent  in  these  extreme  forms  . 

III.  The  Historical  and  Critical  movement 

1 .  Bengel  and  his  school  in  South  Germany  and  Semler 

and  his  school  in  North  Germany    . 
*^2.    Influence  of  Tillotson  upon  the   Biblical   quality  of 
Anglican  preaching         ..... 

3.  The  Biblical  quality  of  Scottish  preaching 

4.  Biblical  influences  in  American  and  French  Protestant 

preaching        ....... 

IV.  The  Literary  movement  ...... 

*a.    Influences  of  the  Augustan  age  in  England 

2.  Revival  of  national  literature  in  Germany  . 

3.  Influence  of  Mosheim,  Schleiermacher,  Herder,  and 

Lavater 39 


26 
31 

33 

35 
36 

36 
36 
37 
37 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER   II 
Prominent  Influences  of  the  Nineteenth  Century 

PAGB 

^I.   The  development  of  physical  science;  its  influence  upon 

Christian  preaching     .......       47 

49 

50 


1.  The  Naturalistic  habit  of  mind   .... 

2.  Modification  of  Supernaturalism 

3.  Intellectual  reserve  and  deliberation  and  reverence  for 

reality 

II.    The  influence  of  modern  philosophy  upon  preaching 

I.   The  influence  of  Kant,  Hegel,  Schleiermacher,   and 
other  philosophic  thinkers  of  Germany 
v-2.   Philosophic  influences  in  England  under  the  leadership 

of  Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge     .... 

*3.    Influence  of  the  broad  church  school  of  the  Anglican 

communion     ....... 

III.  Development  of  historical  and  critical  science  . 

1.  Influence  on  the  mediating  and  confessional  schools 

of  Germany 

2.  Influence  on  the  liberal  movement  and  on  the  reac 

tionary  Oxford  movement  in  England    . 

IV.  Literary  developments 

1.  German  Romanticism 

2.  English    Romanticism.       Influence   in   elevating   th 

substance  and  tone  of  preaching   . 
V.    Awakening  of  the  religious  life  of  the  churches 

I.    Perpetuation  of  religious    mysticism   under   changed 
philosophic    thought    in   Germany.       Influence   of 
Schleiermacher  and  his  school       ....       79 

>-^.   Perpetuation  and  development  of  the  Wesleyan  move- 
ment in  England  and  America         .         .         •         .81 
VI.  Influence   of    the    complex   and   practical    character    of 

modern  life  ......•••       82 

I,    Influence  of  modern  realism        .....       84 

2;    Power  of  an  ethical  age 88 

•'3.    Dominance  of  the  philanthropic  spirit  ...       88 

4.    Effect  of  enlarged  conceptions  of  the   sacredness  of 

hiunan  life 89 


56 
60 

61 

66 

68 
70 

71 

72 

75 
76 

n 
78 


CONTENTS 


XI 


CHAPTER   III 
Prominent  Characteristics  of  Modern  Preaching 

PAGE 

I.    The  experimental  quality,  interpretation  ....  92 

1.  Influence  on  subject-matter  of  preaching     ...  96 

2.  Relationtopositivenessof  tone  and  sharpness  of  outline  98 

3.  Relation  to  spiritual  quality 99 

II.    Historical  and  Biblical  basis loi 

1.  Relation  to  concrete  quality 102 

2.  Relation  to  christological  quality         ....     104 

III.  Critical  and  discriminating  character        ....     106 

1.  Relation  to  constructive  quality  ....     106 

2.  Relation  to  tolerance  and  catholicity  of  spirit      .         .107 

3.  Realistic   character  seen  in  use  of  Scripture  and  in 

apologetics 109 

IV.  Practical  character 112 

1 .  Persuasiveness  as  related  thereto         .         .         .         .114 

2.  Its  ethical  quality 115 

3.  Its  humanitarian  spirit         .         .         .         .         .         .116 

4.  Its  enlarged  scope  and  its  variety       .         .         .         -117 
V.   Formal  qualities 119 

1.  The  evolutionary  method  of  expansion  and  growth     .     121 

2.  Variety  in  form  ........     123 

3.  Suggestiveness  and  unelaborateness   .         .         .         .126 

4.  Characteristic  literary  and  rhetorical  elements     .         .     130 


CHAPTER   IV 

Modern  Preaching  as  Represented  by  Different 
Nationalities  and  Religious  Communions 

/.     The  German  Pulpit 

The  confessional  school 

I. 

2. 

3- 

4. 
5' 


Rhetorical  school  of  confessional  preachers 
The  ethical  school  of  confessional  preachers 
The  Biblical  school  of  confessional  preachers 
The  pietistic  school  of  confessional  preachers 
The  polemical  school  of  confessional  preachers 


138 

139 
141 

143 

144 

145 


6.   The  modern,  moderate  school  of  confessional  preachers  146 


xu 


CONTENTS 


II.   The  liberal  school   , 

1.  The  old  rationalistic  school 

2.  The  new  philosophical  school 

III.  The  mediating  school 

1.  Character  and  influence 

2.  Well-known  representative  preachers 

IV.  Characteristics  of  German  preaching 
I .   Prevailingly  subjective  and  sentimental  quality 


^ 


II 


//.     The  Anglican  Pulpit 
I.   Estimate  of  Anglican  preaching 

I .    Preacher's  task  not  the  supreme  interest 
Conventional  note 
Defective  teaching  basis 
Defective  ethical  aim . 
Inadequate  artistic  quality  . 
Schools  of  Anglican  preaching 

I .    Enrichment  of  high  Anglican  preaching  as  illustrated 
by  prominent  representatives  .         .         .         .         . 

Characteristics  of  the   preaching  of  the  Evangelical 
school  as  illustrated  by  a  few  of  its  distinguished 
leaders    ......... 

Preaching  of  the  Broad  Church  school  and  its  repre- 
sentatives       ........ 


^2. 


^- 


"1. 


///.     Preaching  of  the  English  Free  Churches 
Dominant  qualities  in  English  Puritan  preaching      . 

1.  Its  intellectual  virility 

2.  Its  edifying  pastoral  quality        .... 

3.  Its  persuasive  elements 

4.  Its  prophetic  outlook 

5.  Its  Biblical  substance  and  tone 

6.  Influence    upon    it,    of    the    Wesleyan    and   Anglo 

evangelical   revival 

II.    Qualities  approximately  common  to  the  preaching  of  the 
English  Free  Churches  of  our  day  . 

1.  Its  reflective  philosophic  habit    .... 

2.  Enrichment  of  emotional  and  sentimental  quality 


PAGE 

148 
149 
150 

156 
164 
164 


182 
185 
188 

igo 
192 

192 


206 


215 


227 
227 
228 
229 
230 
231 

232 

23s 
235 
236 


CONTENTS 


XIU 


3.  Combination  of  edifying  and  persuasive  qualities 

4.  Unelaborate  and  suggestive  quality     . 

5.  Conservation  of  spiritual  interests 
III.    Preaching  of  different  Free  Church  communions 

1 .  The  English  Presbyterian  pulpit 

2.  The  English  Methodist  pulpit     . 
^.  The  English  Baptist  pulpit 

4.  The  English  Congregational  pulpit     . 

5.  The  English  Liberal  pulpit 

IV.     Scottish  Preaching 

I.    Significance  of  the  Scottish  pulpit    .         .         .         .         . 

1.  Compared  with  the  Irish,  Welsh,  and  English  pulpits  . 

2.  The  Secession,  the  Moderate,  and  the  Modern  Evan- 

gelical schools         ....... 

II.    The  Scottish  Presbyterian  pulpit  of  our  day     . 

1 .  Preaching  and  preachers  of  the  Established  Church    . 

2.  Preaching  and  preachers  of  the  united  Free  Churches 

V.     The  Preaching  of  the  United  States 

I.   Characteristics  of  American  preaching 

1 .  Value  attaching  to  the  preacher's  place  and  function 

2.  Importance  of  the  intellectual  elements  in  religion 

3.  Insistence  upon  practical  effectiveness 

4.  Variety  of  types  and  forms 
(i)  Sectional  influences  as  related  to  variety 

(2)  Race  influences  as  related  to  variety     . 

(3)  Sectarian  influence  as  related  to  variety 

(4)  Diversity  of  classes  and  interests 
II.    Schools  of  American  preaching 

1 .  Preaching  of  the  Congregational  churches 
(i)  The  historic  evangelistic  interest 

(2)  Influence  of  Andover  Theological  Seminary 

(3)  The  modern  school  of  Congregational  preachers 

2.  Preaching  of  American  Unitarianism  . 

(i)  The  school  of  Channing.     Channing's  influence 
upon  the  American  pulpit        .         .         .         . 


PAGB 

238 

239 

241 
241 

245 

249 
257 
275 


285 

285 

293 
297 
297 
308 


318 
318 
322 

327- 
328- 

330 
331 
332 
333 
335 
336 
336 
343 
346 
351 

352 


xiv  CONTENTS 


PAGR 

354 
357 
357 

359 
361 

364 


(2)  Theodore  Parker  and  his  school  . 

(3)  The  modern  reaUstic,  ethical  school 

3.  Preaching  of  American  Presbyterianism 
(i)  Old  school  preaching  and  preachers 
(2)  New  school  preaching  and  preachers 

4.  Preaching  of  the  Baptist  communion  . 
(i)  Influence  of  its  fundamental  theological  aud  eccle 

siastical  principles  upon  its  preaching        .         .     366 
(2)   Prominent  and  influential  preachers     .         .         .     371 

5.  Preaching  of  American  Episcopacy  ....  379 
(i)  Preaching  and  preachers  of  high  Episcopacy         .     379 

(2)  Preachingandpreachersof  evangelical  Episcopacy     387 

(3)  Preaching  and  preachers  of  broad  Episcopacy       .     397 

6.  Preaching  of  American  Methodism  ....  404 
(i)  Principles  of  Methodism  as  related  to  its  preaching  405 
(2)  Character  of  Methodist  preaching  as  illustrated  by 

individual  preachers 418 

INDEX 437 


INTRODUCTION 

In  the  life  of  the  modem  church  and  in  the  work  of  its 
ministry,  we  note  in  all  Protestant  communities  a  certain 
general  tendency  toward  unity,  and  an  approximation  to 
a  common  type  in  the  processes  of  thought  and  of  practical 
affairs.  This  unifying  process,  which  was  distinctive  in 
general  of  the  nineteenth  century,  was  especially  notable 
in  the  latter  part  of  it.  The  new  problems  that  have  come 
before  the  Christian  church  are  much  the  same  for  all 
religious  denominations,  and  the  tasks  of  the  ministry  are 
strikingly  similar.  As  a  result  of  this  unifying  tendency 
denominational  pecuharities  have  been  greatly  modified. 
In  many  cases  they  have  been  almost  wholly  eliminated 
and  ecclesiastical  looundary  Hnes  well-nigh  obhterated. 
Sectarian  idiosyncrasies  seem  to  be  giving  place  to  a  type 
of  ecclesiastical  and  clerical  character  that  is  approxi- 
mately common.  The  denominational  minister,  adver- 
tising his  sect  by  a  stereotyped  pulpit  method,  by  a  diction 
and  dress  or  by  tones  of  voice  and  facial  expression  that 
are  altogether  provincial,  vanishes  in  most  cosm'opohtan 
communities.  The  influences  that  are  at  work  upon  the 
ministry,  the  problems  that  are  before  it,  the  demands  that 
are  urged  upon  it,  are  so  similar,  and  consequently  its  pro- 
fessional training  is  so  nearly  ahke  in  most  of  our  Protestant 
churches,  that  it  is  relatively  easy  for  church  leaders  to  pass 
from  one  to  another  denomination,  assume  new  positions, 
and  enter  upon  new  relations  without  radical  readjust- 
ments. And  all  this  discloses  its  results  in  the  most  deci- 
sive manner  in  the  work  of  the  pulpit.  Preaching,  in  its 
highest  and  most  effective  forms,  with  all  its  minor  racial, 


xvi  INTRODUCTION 

national,  denominational,  and  individual  peculiarities,  is 
often  so  similar  in  its  cast  of  thought,  its  homiletic  method, 
and  its  literary  spirit,  that  it  suggests  a  common  source, 
and  it  is  not  always  easy  at  once  to  detect  the  special  eccle- 
siastical sphere  of  the  preacher's  education  and  training. 
What  differentiates  the  ministers  of  different  communions, 
or  indeed  separates  the  clergy  from  the  laity,  is  being  re- 
duced to  a  minimum.  All  this  marks  a  great  change  in  the 
modem  church.  Compare,  for  example,  the  ecclesiastical 
symbols  of  the  last  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  with 
those  of  previous  centuries.  Compare  especially  the  homi- 
letic products.  Contrast  any  notable  preacher  of  our  day 
with  the  preachers  of  the  first  quarter  of  the  last  century. 
In  reading  their  products,  we  find  ourselves  in  a  somewhat 
different  homiletic  realm.  So  great  are  the  changes  that, 
when  we  step  back  three-quarters  of  a  century,  we  seem  to 
find  ourselves  in  a  somewhat  foreign  countr}'.  In  thought, 
method,  diction,  there  is  a  suggestion  of  remoteness.  Our 
interest  in  the  product  is  largely  historical,  or  professional 
rather  than  personal.  The  preaching  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  or  the  first  part  of  the  nineteenth,  cannot  interest 
us  as  does  the  preaching  of  our  own  day,  because  it  is  some- 
what remote  from  us.  All  this  is  what  we  might  and  should 
expect.  We  are  dominated  by  the  spirit  of  modem  fife. 
The  processes  of  civiHzation  are  always  the  processes  of 
unification.  Barbarism  disintegrates.  The  savage  is  an 
anarchist,  and  the  anarchist  is  a  savage.  The  unciviHzed 
peoples  have  no  time-spirit.  Christianity  individualizes, 
but  it  also  unifies.  Christendom  has  a  larger  community 
life  than  any  other  section  of  the  human  race.  It  has  more 
numerous  touching  points,  better  mutual  understandings, 
larger  sympathies,  closer  fellowships ;  and  an  ever  strength- 
ening unity  in  an  ever  increasing  complexity  is  the  domi- 
nant note  of  our  modem  civilization.  It  is  a  cosmopohtan 
age  in  which  a  spirit  of  comprehension  is  very  manifest. 
Men  affect  broader  and  freer  ranges  of  thought  and  action 


INTRODUCTION  xvii 

and  cherish  larger  and  more  generous  estunates  that  are 
grounded  in  a  fuller  consciousness  of  unity  of  Ufe.  We 
know  more  about  the  human  race  than  was  ever  known 
before :  there  is  a  more  comprehensive  and  a  more  correct 
estimate  of  humanity;  there  is  a  better  understanding  be- 
tween the  peoples  of  different  nationahties ;  there  is  less 
race  prejudice  among  peoples  that  are  civiUzed,  and  all  recru- 
descence of  race  hate  is  evidential  of  the  dominance  of  the 
brute  and  of  a  drift  back  to  savagery ;  there  is  a  disposition 
to  take  broader  views  and  to  follow  more  practical  methods 
in  the  treatment  of  all- important  questions,  a  better  com- 
prehension of  different  poHtical  and  ecclesiastical  institu- 
tions, and  of  their  influence  upon  the  characters  and  lives 
of  men,  a  better  understanding  among  the  different  classes 
in  society,  a  better  appreciation  of  what  is  true  in  different 
sects  and  theologies,  a  better  estimate  of  the  practical  needs 
of  men  in  different  spheres  of  associate  life,  and  a  tendency 
towards  fuller  cooperation  in  matters  of  practical  adminis- 
tration in  all  departments  of  organized  activity.  This 
tendency  towards  uniffcation,  the _  conscious  striving  for 
whose  realization  may  almost  be  called  the  passion  of  our 
time,  isthe  outcome  of  that  larger  world-spirit  which  is  the 
product  of  great  changes  in  thought  and  sentiment  that 
have^  touched  every  sphere  of  life,  of  the  wider  diffusion  of 
knowledge  and  fuller  development  of  education,  of  the 
democratizing  of  pohtical  and  ecclesiastical  institutions,  of 
vast  developments  in  industrial  Hfe,  of  increasing  facihties 
of  intercourse,  or  larger  fellowships  in  the  commercial  re-' 
lations  of  men  and  in  their  philanthropic  enterprises.  Col- 
lectively and  individually  men  become  subject  to  these 
dominating  tendencies.  They  come  under  the  influence 
of  currents  of  thought  that  have  touched  the  most  important 
interests  of  humanity,  science,  philosophy,  art,  literature, 
politics,  industry,  commerce,  ethics,  and  rehgion.  They 
cherish  similar  sentiments  and  follow  hke  general  courses 
of  action.     This  influence,  so  subtle,  largely  unconscious, 


xviii  INTRODUCTION 

increasingly  pervasive,  breathing  itself  as  it  were  through- 
out the  common  Hfe,  and  which  v^e  therefore  call  the  time- 
spirit  or  spirit  of  the  age  —  v^hat  wonder  that  it  should 
disclose  itself  as  elsewhere  in  the  Ufe  of  the  church  and  in 
its  most  characteristic  products ! 

The  preaching  of  any  age  should  be  the  product,  directly 
or  indirectly,  and  in  some  large  measure,  of  the  forces  that 
are  at  work  under  it  or  in  it  or  about  it.  What  educates 
the  man  will  condition  his  preaching.  The  mark  of  the 
culture  of  his  time  will  remain  with  every  man  who  is 
properly  educated,  and  it  will  disclose  itself  in  his  profes- 
sional product.  A  complete  break  between  the  man  and 
the  forces  that  play  upon  him  is  impossible,  and  if  possible 
would  render  education  impossible.  To  say  that  a  man 
bears  the  mark  of  his  age  and  is  largely  its  product  is  sim- 
ply to  say  that  his  culture  is  normal.  A  man's  theological 
beliefs  are  the  product  of  a  great  variety  —  greater  than 
appears  at  the  surf  ace  — of  influences  that  are  constantly  at 
work  upon  him.  Agencies  manifold  of  the  most  subtle  and 
pervasive  sort  have  wrought  in  the  modification  of  theo- 
logic  thought  in  the  most  widely  divergent  circles  in  our 
time,  and  these  influences  have  all  been  convergent  upon 
the  pulpit. 

Not  only  the  direct  sources  of  education,  but  all  the 
objects  of  men's  activity  in  professional  hfe,  affect  the 
pulpit  product.  No  man  can  preach  in  entire  indepen- 
dence of  the  changes  that  have  affected  pohtical,  industrial, 
commercial,  as  well  as  ecclesiastical  hfe.  All  these  changes 
furnish  new  objects  of  homiletic  activity,  as  well  as  con- 
dition the  methods  by  which  these  objects  are  to  be  reached. 
All  the  great  social  pohties  —  family,  church,  state,  and  all 
forms  of  social  organization, — greatly  modified  and  almost 
revolutionized  by  the  forces  of  modem  hfe,  present  new 
objects  of  professional  interest  and  action,  and  in  turn 
become  sources  of  educational  influence.  The  church 
especially  is  m  many  most  important  aspects  a  different 


INTRODUCTION  xix 

institution  from  what  it  once  was  and  holds  a  greatly 
modified  relation  to  the  world  at  large.  The  pressure  of 
secular  Hfe  upon  it  has  conditioned  a  changed  conception 
ofifs  sanctity  and  of  its  mission,  and  all  this  has  furnished 
new  problems  and  new  themes  for  the  pulpit  and  has 
greatly  enlarged  the  scope  of  its  activities  and  the  range 
of  objects  with  which  it  deals.  And  all  this  illustrates  the 
practical  character  of  the  preacher's  work.  It  is  his  ^ask 
to  reach  and  influence  the  people  of  his  time.  For  this  he 
must  be  properly  educated  and  trained.  The  problem  of 
proper  pulpit  training  is  precisely  the  problem  of  getting 
the  preacher  into  effective  working  relations  with  those 
about  him.  Of  course  the  true  preacher  will  grasp  what 
is  permanent  in  Christianity,  for  in  all  that  is  fundamental 
and  distinctive  it  is  hke  its  founder,  "the  same  yesterday, 
to-day,  and  forever."  It  is  an  outstanding,  eternal  reahty 
and  not  a  subjective  age  product.  No  man  is  a  true 
Christian  preacher  in  the  highest  and  most  worthy  con- 
ception of  the  term,  and  no  man  can  be  the  preacher  his 
age  needs,  who  fails  to  recognize  the  continuity  of  Christian 
faith.  The  church  would  escape  theological  disintegration 
and  revolution  on  the  one  side  and  theological  panic  and 
retrogression  on  the  other  side  if  its  teachers  and  preachers 
had  a  firmer  grip  of  historic  truth,  and  were  more  skilful 
interpreters  of  it.  And  yet  the  everlasting  Gospel  is  for 
to-day,  and  its  timehness  is  precisely  one  of  the  most 
prominent  notes  of  its  everlastingness.  Of  course,  men 
need  breadth  of  training  and  culture.  No  man  knows  his 
age  who  fails  to  know  it  in  its  historic  sourcesT^iTd  no  man 
can  ser\'e  his  age  worthily  who  withholds  from  it  the  stored 
treasures -of- other  geherationsT'IThe  modem  craze  for 
speciahzation  and  for  concentration  upon  a  narrow  circle 
of  temporary  interests  is  untimely.  The  timely  man  is  the 
man  who  consults  the  permanent  needs  and  not  the  tran- 
sient caprices  of  his  time.  And  yet  the  true  preacher  is  by 
preeminence  the  man  of  and  for  his  time,  who  knows  how 


XX  INTRODUCTION 

to  adjust  himself  to  it,  and  who  wins  a  hearing  because  he 
tells  men  what  they  need  to  hear.  No  man  can  be  a  preacher 
or  worthy  church  leader  in  any  Hne  who  trains  himself,  or 
permits  himself  to  be  trained,  into  a  habitual  disregard 
of  the  opinions,  the  sentiments,  the  tastes,  or  even  the 
wishes,  of  those  to  whom  he  ministers.  Doubtless  there  is 
often  a  chasm  between  what  people  reaUy  need  and  what 
they  superficially  wish,  and  the  prophet  who  knows  the 
needs  of  his  age  never  hstens  to  the  clamors  of  caprice. 
And  yet  it  is  one  of  the  most  prominent  notes  of  the  prophet 
that  he  thoroughly  knows  his  age  that  he  may  adjust  his 
message  to  it.  The  chasm  between  need  and  desire  can 
be  bridged,  and  the  timely  preacher  is  the  bridge  builder. 
No  pontificate  is  more  worthy  of  him  who  is  called  to  be 
the  spiritual  successor  of  the  apostles  than  that  of  him  who 
is  charged  with  the  task  of  bridging  the  chasm  between  the 
permanent  needs  and  the  transient  desires  of  the  human 
soul.  Every  true  preacher  has  the  prophetic  calling  to  be 
an  interpreter  of  eternal  truth  to  his  own  age.  And  he  is 
the  man  who  by  the  timehness  of  his  message  and  the  skill 
of  his  interpretation  awakens  the  sense  of  some  real  need, 
who  finds,  after  much  striving  it  may  be,  Uke  the  prophet 
of  old,  but  at  last,  the  inteUigence  and  the  conviction  and 
the  affection  of  those  whom  he  has  awakened,  and  who 
succeeds  in  showing  them  that  his  message  is  what  they 
need  to  hear,  and  are  half  waiting  to  hear,  and  long  ago 
would  have  heard,  had  they  truly  interpreted  their  own 
deepest  necessities  as  the  preacher  has  interpreted  those 
necessities  to  them.  Such  men,  of  whatever  school,  even 
schools  the  most  divergent,  who  recognize  the  fundamental 
needs  of  the  human  soul,  are  the  true  preachers  of  every 
age,  however  defective  may  be  the  form  in  which  the  truth 
of  their  message  may  be  conceived  and  presented..  But 
the  more  closely  they  are  in  touch  with  all  that  is  best  in 
their  own  time,  the  more  wide  reaching  and  permanent 
'will  their  influence  be. 


INTRODUCTION  XXI 

It  is  true  that  preachers  are  influenced  variously  in  kind 
and  in  degree  by  the  forces  that  are  playing  about  them 
and  upon  them.     Some  anticipate  what  is  yet  undeveloped, 
ahead  of  their  time,  living  prophetically  in  the  future,  in- 
terpreters of  things  that  are  yet  to  be.     The  early  part  of 
the  last  century  was  prohfic  of  such  prophetic  souls,  whose 
influence  is  the  inheritance   and  the  glory  of  our  day. 
Others  only  follow  as  interpreters  of  what  has  already 
become  a  common  possession,  Hving  in  the  present  and  dis- 
closing the  practical  significance  of  the  truths  that  have  be- 
come objects  of  common  acceptance.     And  some  are  reac- 
tionists, turning  their  faces  towards  the  past,  reviving  the 
memories  of  other  ages,  endeavoring  to  restore  the  truths 
of  the  past  in  the  forms  of  the  past  and  to  defend  them  by 
the  instruments  of  the  past.     But  no  preacher,  however 
clear  his  prophetic  vision  and  however  far  it  may  allure  him 
into  the  future,  or  however  firmly  rooted  he  may  be  in  the 
existing  order  of  thought  and  however  dominating  his  per- 
sonal force  in  the  defence  of  the  common  places  of  his 
school  or  sect,  or  however  archaic  and  reactionary  he  may 
be,  can  ever  wholly  escape ;  —  and  well  for  the  world  that  it 
is  so,  —  the  influences  that  are  at  work,  however  subtly  and 
sflently,  about  him  and  that  are  changing  the  order  of  Hf e 
and  ushering  in  the  better  day  that  is  to  be.     And  it  is 
precisely  the  preacher's  responsiveness,  consciously  or  un- 
consciously, to  these  influences  that  largely  conditions  the 
power  he  exerts  over  his  feUow-men.     There  are,  indeed, 
eddies  into  which  men  drift,  or  into  which  they  steer; 
there  are  back  currents,  but  after  all  they  are  part  of  the 
main  stream  of  tendencv.     The  personal,  the  racial,  the 
national,    the    ecclesiastical   factors   are    always   present. 
But  they  are  all  touched  in  some  way  and  in  some  measure 
by  the  subtle  spirit  that  is  at  work  beneath  and  in  all  forms 
of  hfe  in  the  age  in  which  we  live.     It  wiU  be  the  object  of 
the  discussion  which  follows  to  make  this,  if  possible,  some- 
what apparent.     We  shall  examine  some  of  the  agencies 


xxii  INTRODUCTION 

that  have  wrought  upon  modem  preaching  and  some  of  the 
influences  that  have  shaped  it,  note  some  of  its  prominent 
characteristics  as  thus  influenced  and  shaped,  and  outhne 
some  of  the  distinctive  quahties  in  the  preaching  of  differ- 
ent nationalities  and  ecclesiastical  communions. 


THE   MODERN   PULPIT 


THE    MODERN    PULPIT 

CHAPTER  I 

PREPARATIVE  INFLUENCES  OF  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

The  eighteenth  century  was  one  of  the  most  productive 
periods  in  the  history  of  the  Christian  pulpit.  It  was  an 
age  of  revolution,  when  all  the  foundations  were  broken 
up.  It  was  a  period  of  strong  revulsions,  when  the  forces 
that  had  been  Hberated  leaped  swiftly  into  ascendency, 
set  themselves  in  vigorous  reaction  against  tradition, 
changed  the  currents  of  human  life,  and  bore  fresh  fruit 
in  every  sphere.  As  being  an  age  of  destruction  it  has 
been  called  a  barren  age,  but  it  was  an  era  in  the  long  run 
and  in  the  larger  estimate  directly  or  indirectly  productive 
of  most  beneficent  results. 

The  movements  that  then  emerged  into  prominence 
soon  made  themselves  felt  in  the  work  of  the  preacher. 
In  the  ferment  of  new  ideas  and  of  new  emotions  and 
sentiments,  fresh  interest  was  awakened  in  the  problems 
of  the  pulpit.  New  homiletic  theories  emerged  that  bore 
the  names  of  different  schools.  New  types  of  preaching 
were  multipHed  that  found  vigorous  adherents  and  de- 
fenders. A  new  spirit  wrought  destructively  in  old 
methods.  In^  substance,  tone,  and  aim  change  followed 
change  in  rapid  succession,  and  the  way  was  prepared  for 
what  developed  later  on.  What  is  most  characteristic 
of  the  preaching  of  the  last  century  finds  in  many  of  its 
essential  elements  a  period  of  preparation  in  the  century 
preceding,  and  is  an  enlargement  in  modified  form  of 
those  transformations.  One  knows  adequately  the  preach- 
ing of  the  last  century  only  by  knowing  it  in  its  historic 


2  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

sources.     Let  us,  therefore,  see  if  wje  can  discover  what 
lies  behind  it. 

The  type  of  preaching  that  on  the  whole  had  precedence 
at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  was  an  inherit- 
ance from  the  post-Reformation  period.  It  was  of  the 
old  doctrinal  type.  It  is  true  that  various  partial  modifi- 
cations in  the  post-Reformation  homiletic  tradition  had 
already  taken  place.  Its  excessive  didactic  character  had 
not  met  the  needs  of  the  rehgious  Hfe  of  the  churches.  It 
had  not  satisfied  the  Protestant  demand  for  immediate  com- 
merce with  the  ever  fresh  sources  of  Biblical  inspiration. 
It  had  failed  to  find  response  in  the  hterary  tastes  of  the 
cultivated  classes,  nor  did  it  meet  the  increasing  demands 
of  their  broader  intelligence.  The  experimental,  the 
BibHcal,  the  literary,  and  the  rational  interest  had  already 
begun  to  make  serious  inroads  into  the  old  dry  and 
stereotyped  method.  But  the  disintegrating  forces  had 
not  yet  done  their  revolutionary  work.  In  all  countries 
where  the  Roman  church  was  dominant  the  old  eccle- 
siastical, dogmatic  method  was  a  matter  of  course.  But 
in  the  chief  Protestant  countries  as  well,  in  Germany, 
Holland,  France,  and  Great  Britain,  a  corresponding 
method,  the  traditional  method  of  the  post-Reformation 
period,  was  still  prevalent.^  It  was  a  strongly  dogmatic 
type  of  preaching  that  rested  largely  upon  some  form  of 
external  authority.  Its  ultimate  source  is  perhaps  to  be 
found  in  a  one-sided  and  extreme,  and  so  defective,  esti- 
mate of  the  significance  and  importance  of  the  doctrinal 
element  in  BibHcal  revelation.  The  Bible  is  primarily  a 
body  of  doctrine  and  of  legislation,  to  interpret  and  apply 
which  is  the  preacher's  most  important  function.  The 
value  of  this  point  of  view  in  the  history  of  Christian 
preaching  should  not  be  minimized,  nor  the  importance 
of  the  results  in  the  long  run  accomplished,  particularly 
in  the  elaboration  and  thorough  presentation  of  different 

'  Th.  Harnack's  "Pract.  Theol.  Homiletic,"  125  S. 


INFLUENCES   OF   THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY       3 

phases  of  doctrinal  Christianity.  But  it  has  been  pain- 
fully overwrought.  All  this  involved  also  erroneous  or 
at  least  extravagant  conceptions  of  BibUcal  inspiration 
and  even  of  Bibhcal  revelation  itself  in  its  doctrinal 
aspects.^  Bibhcal  revelation  interpreted  by  Christian 
experience,  as  against  church  tradition,  was  of  course  the 
external  basis  of  authority  for  the  reformation  movement. 
It  was  therefore  supremely  important  that  the  reformers 
should  know  what  the  Bible  said,  what  it  really  taught. 
Hence  their  interest  in  Bibhcal  exegesis.  But  much 
as  they  may  have  known  and  must  know  about  the  teach- 
ings of  the  Bible,  they  were  still  measurably  ignorant  as 
to  what  the  Bible  really  was.  The  leading  reformers, 
indeed,  especially  Luther,  at  one  period  of  his  activity, 
seemed  to  have  a  presentiment  of  the  larger  problem. 
They  distinguished  between  the  Bible  as  a  collection  of 
historic  records  and  the  word  of  God  that  is  contained  in 
it,  and  the  Scriptures  were  handled  in  a  free  and  rational, 
but  always  in  a  reverent,  manner.  The  testimony  of  the 
Christian  consciousness  and  the  witness  of  the  divine 
Spirit  in  the  heart  of  the  behever  were  coordinated  with 
the  external  authority  of  the  Bible  as  sources  of  rehgious 
certitude.  But  these  germs  of  a  better  knowledge  were 
not  fully  developed.  The  traditional  conception  of  the 
Bible  still  prevailed.  It  is  a  compendium  of  positive, 
dogmatic  truth,  rather  than  a  historic  record  of  God's 
personal  self- revelation  as  the  redeemer  of  men.  Hence 
it  must  stand  over  against  men  as  an  external  source  of 
infaUible  doctrinal  authority  at  all  points.  This  involved 
erroneous  conceptions  of  BibUcal  inspiration.  It  was  an 
inspiration  that  covered  the  entire  subject-matter  of  the 
Bible  and  was  not  hmited  to  its  ethical  and  rehgious 
teachings.  The  results  in  preaching  of  this  failure  to 
understand  the  true  character  of  Bibhcal  revelation  and 
inspiration  were  manifold.    One  of  them  was  a  perverted 

»  Rothe's  "Geschichte  der  Predigt,"  367-370. 


4  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

use  of  texts.  As  inspired,  all  Scripture  passages  must 
have  in  themselves  all  fulness  of  significance.  They 
may  therefore  be  isolated  and  treated  independently  as 
individual  texts.  In  such  use  of  them  there  can  be  no 
assurance  that  an  utterly  false  significance  may  not  be 
assigned  to  them,  a  significance  not  only  foreign  to  what 
was  in  the  mind  of  the  writer,  but  foreign  in  fact  to  all 
legitimate  Biblical  teaching  and  even  to  all  legitimate 
homiletic  suggestion.  In  this  way  texts  were  strained, 
until,  as  a  quaint  old  Puritan  divine  said,  the  preacher 
"drew  blood."  It  has  become  increasingly  evident  that 
it  is  necessary  to  know  what  the  Bible  really  is  before  one 
can  adequately  know  what  it  really  says.  The  higher 
criticism  is  of  essential  value  to  the  lower  criticism.  Here 
then  we  have  with  modifications  the  old  allegorical 
method.  Every  Scripture,  as  being  fully  and  infalUbly 
inspired,  must  have  more  than  its  historic  or  primary 
and  surface  meaning.  It  must  have,  of  course,  a  hidden 
spiritual  sense.  In  fact  it  may  have  manifold  meanings, 
all  equally  true,  however  contradictory  in  thought  or 
incapable  of  being  rationally  harmonized.  The  result 
of  all  this  was  erroneous  teaching.  All  Scripture,  with  its 
manifold  points  of  view,  its  diversities  of  teaching,  and  its 
varieties  of  hterary  form,  is  put  upon  the  same  dead  level. 
The  two  Testaments  are  confounded  and  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures  are  made  to  teach  Christian  doctrine.  But  in 
course  of  time  the  Scriptures  themselves,  although  at  all 
points  infalKbly  inspired,  ceased  to  be  adequate  for  the 
assumed  needs  of  the  church,  especially  for  the  defence 
of  truth,  which  was  being  vigorously  assailed  by  the 
adversaries  of  the  church.  Christianity  as  doctrine  does 
not  interpret  itself.  It  cannot  be  left  to  be  interpreted  by 
the  unlearned  individual  Christian  in  the  experiences  of  his 
own  inner  life,  nor  should  it  be  left  any  longer  to  the  in- 
dividual preacher,  however  pious  or  well  instructed  in 
BibHcal    rehgion.     It    is    of    supreme    importance    that 


INFLUENCES    OF   THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY       5 

Christianity  as  a  divine  teaching  should  be  authoritatively 
expounded.  The  church  must  interpret  the  Bible. 
Christian  truth  must  be  formulated  as  church  dogma,  and 
as  thus  formulated  it  must  bear  the  mark  of  church  au- 
thority.* The  authority  of  the  Bible  itself,  as  interpreted 
by  Christian  experience  or  by  the  learning  of  the  individual 
preacher,  will  no  longer  suffice.  Church  creeds  therefore 
become  the  authoritative  standard  of  orthodoxy  and  the 
authoritative  basis  for  pulpit  teaching.^  It  is  true  that 
nominally  church  orthodoxy  was  held  in  subordination  to 
the  Protestant  tradition  of  the  supremacy  of  the  Scriptures 
as  interpreted  by  Christian  experience  and  by  the  witness 
of  the  divine  Spirit  in  the  soul,  in  all  matters  of  Christian 
belief  and  conduct.  But  practically  doctrine  as  formu- 
lated by  church  authority  was  supreme.  Church  ortho- 
doxy was  the  test  of  value  for  the  work  of  the  pulpit.  In 
this  way  the  Reformation  failed  to  realize  for  the  pulpit 
its  largest  and  best  results.  Emancipated  by  a  sublime 
revolt  of  the  Christian  heart  and  conscience  in  the  name  of 
God  against  the  shackles  of  ecclesiasticism,  the  Protestant 
churches  returned  to  the  old  bondage  in  new  form,  and 
we  have  once  more  a  strong  ecclesiastical  type  of  preaching 
that  matches  and  counterweights  the  dogmatism  of  the 
Roman  church.  Church  doctrine  becomes  the  paramount 
interest,  an  end  to  itself,  and  the  Christian  life  practically 
a  subordinate  interest.  Anchoring  thus  directly  to  the 
creeds  of  the  churches,  instead  of  foraging  upon  the  ever 
fresh  Bibhcal  sources,  laying  supreme  stress  upon  ortho- 
doxy, and  insisting  upon  a  dogmatic  subject-matter,  the 
inevitable  outcome  for  preaching  was  a  perversion  of  the 
truth  itself.  A  formal  orthodoxy  that  makes  its  primary 
appeal  to  mental  assent,  and  to  authoritatively  defined 
doctrine,  has  more  emphasis  for  beHef  than  it  has  for  life, 

'  Rot  he's  "Geschichte  der  Predigt,"  367-370. 

^  Christlieb's  "  Geschichte  der  Christhchen  Predigt,"  Real  Encyklo- 
padie,  18,  531-534- 


6  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

and  for  teaching  than  it  has  for  persuasion.  Hence  a  loss 
of  grip  upon  vital  truth.  The  more  orthodox  on  this  wise 
men  become  the  less  real  their  hold  upon  the  great  verities 
of  religion.  Theology  is  confounded  with  rehgion  itself. 
To  preach  church  orthodoxy  is  simply  to  preach  the  true 
rehgion.  The  claims  of  the  one  are  precisely  the  claims  of 
the  other.  The  formal  is  confounded  with  the  real.  Be- 
hef  is  identified  with  faith.  Orthodox  opinion  is  the  way 
of  hfe.  Thus  men  strayed  from  the  truth,  and  the  spiritual 
Hfe  dechned.  The  great  central  principle  of  the  Refor- 
mation was  perverted.  Justification  is  divorced  from  the 
subjective  experience  of  redemption,  and  hohness  of  char- 
acter is  a  subordinate  interest  in  the  way  of  salvation.  In 
this  identification  of  evangehcal  faith  with  dogmatic  faith 
the  Protestant  churches  came  back  once  more  into  close 
touch  with  the  church  of  Rome.  To  rely  upon  church 
orthodoxy  —  what  better  is  that  than  to  rely  upon  church 
sacraments  or  upon  any  form  of  external  church  authority  ? 
This  perversion  of  the  truth  was  contested,  but  it  was  not 
overcome.  The  Christian  Hfe  was  extemahzed  once  more. 
Religion  was  divorced  from  morahty.  Virtue  was  a  matter 
of  prudence,  and  piety  decayed  at  the  root.  The  church  set 
the  standards  of  homiletic  correctness,  and  preaching  lost 
its  experimental  and  Bibhcal  basis.  A  false  conception  of 
the  object  of  preaching  was  involved.  Indoctrination  was 
the  aim,  and  this  became  an  end  to  itself .  •^It  was  not 
enough  that  men  be  won  from  hves  of  sin  to  lives  of  holi- 
ness, that  they  be  edified  in  Christian  manhood  by  a  fresh 
Biblical  exposition  and  an  experimental  inculcation  of  the 
truth,  and  thus  in  the  freedom  of  the  spirit  become  the  sup- 
porters and  defenders  of  a  living  Christianity  that  should 
dominate  the  whole  Hfe.  They  must  become  the  patrons  of 
an  institutional  rehgion  that  was  embodied  in  institutional 
dogmas  and  behefs.  Thus,  too,  the  tone  and  spirit  of 
preaching  suffered  deterioration.  The  new,  fresh  life  that 
had  Uberated  the  Reformation  movement  and  that  had 


INFLUENCES   OF   THE   EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY       7 

lifted  preaching  into  a  great  height  of  spiritual  power  had 
vanished.  It  became  dogmatic  in  temper  as  well  as  in 
substance  and  method,  and  degenerated  into  violent 
polemics.  The  pulpit  became  an  armed  fortress.  To 
defend  orthodoxy  and  to  fight  down  heresy,  Romanist  and 
Protestant  ahke,  was  the  supreme  aim.  The  missionary 
Hfe  of  the  church  languished.  The  church  is  an  army  of 
hostile  camps,  each  concentrating  all  its  energies  upon  the 
defence  of  its  own  orthodoxy.  Worship  held  a  subordi- 
nate place  and  preaching  was  thrown  out  of  harmony  with 
the  needs  of  the  worshipping  assembly.  As  Romanism 
divorced  preaching  from  worship,  so  Protestantism  di- 
vorced worship  from  preaching,  to  the  detriment  of  both. 
Romanism  made  the  opus  operatum  of  the  church  sacra- 
ments and  Protestantism  the  opus  operatum  of  church 
orthodoxy  the  supreme  interest,  and  in  either  case  and  in 
both  ahke  to  the  devitalizing  of  the  Christian  Hfe.* 

The  artistic  and  literar}^  quahty  of  preaching  also  suf- 
fered. The  freshness,  the  freedom,  and  the  individuahty 
that  had  characterized  the  preaching  of  the  Reformation 
period  vanished.  Spontaneity  and  naturalness  no  longer 
reigned  supreme.  A  new  ecclesiastical  interest  was  to  be 
subserved  and  a  new  instrument  was  demanded  suited  to 
the  uses  of  dogmatics  and  polemics.  The  instrument  that 
was  chosen  had  not  been  provided  by  the  church  itself, 
was  out  of  harmony  with  its  own  true  spirit,  with  the 
Reformation  movement,  and  with  the  spirit  of  the  age.^ 
The  church  appropriated  with  modifications  the  old  scho- 
lastic method.  It  introduced  into  the  pulpit  the  categories 
of  a  formal  dialectic  that  counterworked  its  rhetorical 
effectiveness.  Preaching  became  elaborately  and  formally 
argumentative.  Instead  of  appeaUng  to  the  moral  and 
spiritual  intuitions,  as  the  Scriptures  do,  it  appealed  pri- 
marily to  the  understanding  and  sought  to  lay  into  the 

*  Rothe's  "Geschichte  der  Predigt,"  366.  '  Ibid.,  367. 


8  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

mind  the  doctrines  of  the  church  by  elaborate  processes 
of  analysis.  It  was  abstruse  in  thought,  formal,  minute, 
and  stereotyped  in  method,  pedantic  in  its  multitudinous 
citations,  abstract  in  terminology,  and  barbarous  in  Hterary 
style.  Defect  in  subject-matter  and  in  aim  will  always 
involve  defect  in  rhetorical  form.  The  didactic  interest 
failed  of  all  kindlings  of  the  imagination,  of  all  utterance 
of  the  emotions  and  aflfections.  Losing  all  freshness, 
spontaneity,  naturalness,  variety,  and  individuahty,  it  lost 
also  ethical  and  spiritual  tone.  It  is  true  that  in  Great 
Britain  and  France  various  influences  had,  before  the 
beginning  of  the  century,  modified  the  work  of  the  pulpit. 
In  the  Netherlands  and  in  Germany  it  lacked  the  stimulus 
of  a  better  intellectual  and  artistic  hfe.  In  Germany  ^ 
homiletic  problems  were  indeed  vigorously  discussed,  but 
the  discussion  was  without  fruitful  results,  and  changes 
were  only  perpetuations  in  new  form  of  the  old  method. 
Everywhere  the  dogmatic  method  still  held  the  field. 
The  universities  and  training  schools  for  preachers  still 
supported  and  defended  it,  and  carried  it  against  all 
reaction  on  into  a  revolutionary  age.  It  is  singular  how 
long  and  how  tenaciously  this  method,  with  whatever 
modifications,  held  its  own.  The  echoes  of  it  still  Unger 
in  the  memories  of  men  who  have  not  yet  got  beyond  their 
threescore  years  and  ten.  The  persistence  of  the  dog- 
matic principle  and  method  is  in  some  sort  a  partial 
vindication  of  the  value  of  the  attempt  to  interpret  Chris- 
tianity in  a  formulated  doctrinal  consensus,  a  demonstra- 
tion of  the  tenacity  with  which  men  hold  to  external  au- 
thority in  religion,  of  the  importance  they  attach  to  what 
they  regard  as  a  rational  method  of  interpreting  it  and  is 
in  fact  a  witness,  however  pen^erted,  as  to  the  value  of 
some  objective  basis  for  religious  faith,  and  the  importance 
of  domesticating  religion  in  human  thought. 

In  Germany  the  centre  of  influence  for  dogmatic  ortho- 

'  Rothe's  "  Geschichte  der  Predigt,"  375. 


INFLUENCES   OF   THE  EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY      9 

doxy  was  Saxony,  and  the  university  of  Leipzig  was  its 
chief  support,  as  in  the  previous  period  the  University  of 
Wittenberg  had  been  the  chief  centre  of  the  old  Bibhcal 
school  that  had  its  origin  in  the  Reformation,  and  the 
influence  of  the  Leipzig  school  was  felt  throughout  northern 
Germany/  Each  university,  indeed,  had  its  own  method 
of  preaching  which  bore  its  name  and  mark,  but  all  were 
only  modifications  of  the  same  generic  method.  The 
dominance  in  northern  Germany  of  the  doctrinal  conception 
of  Christianity,  the  preponderance  of  intellectual  influ- 
ences, the  thoroughness  with  which  the  North  German 
grasps  his  problem,  the  tenacity  with  which  he  holds  to  it, 
his  relative  defect  in  artistic  gifts,  and  the  slowness  with 
which  he  responds  to  hterary  and  rhetorical  influences,  as 
well  as  the  decay  of  piety  in  the  churches  and  the  influence 
of  the  universities,  account  largely  for  the  firmness  with 
which  it  intrenched  itself  here,  and  the  same  is  largely  true 
of  the  Netherlands.  On  the  other  hand  the  mystical 
tendencies  of  the  people,  their  ardent  affectionatencss  and 
emotional  responsiveness,  which  conditioned  the  culture 
of  a  more  spiritual  type  of  piety,  measurably  account  for 
the  fact  that  it  found  a  less  congenial  home  in  South  Ger- 
many.^ 

In  Great  Britain  the  confessional  type  of  preaching  was 
somewhat  common  in  the  AngHcan,  in  the  Scottish,  and 
in  the  Puritan  churches,  and  the  poHtical,  ecclesiastical, 
and  theological  controversies  of  the  age  furthered  its  per- 
petuation. In  the  Puritan  churches  the  Bibhcal  method 
of  preaching  was  more  common  than  in  the  estabUshed 
church  and  had  been  so  during  the  seventeenth  century.' 
The  same  is  measurably  true  of  the  Scottish  churches,  and 
even  in  the  AngHcan  church  we  find  a  body  of  learned  and 
cultivated  men,  who  had  already  become  subject  to  the 
intellectual  and  artistic  influences  of  their  age  and  who 

*  Christlieb's  "  Geschichte  der  Christ.  Pred.,"  Real  Ency.,  18,  531-536- 
'  Ibid.,  564.  *  Ibid.,  549. 


10  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

had  modified  the  confessional  type  of  preaching  that  was 
current.  It  is  eminently  true  that  the  piety  of  the  Puri- 
tan churches  in  that  Golden  Age  of  Puritanism  had  to  a 
considerable  extent  modified  the  extremes  of  the  confes- 
sional type,  and  when  at  its  best,  even  at  the  beginning  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  Puritan  preaching  was  experimen- 
tal and  Biblical.  And  yet  it  is  also  true  that  the  Puritan 
preachers,  and  the  Scottish  as  well,  used  the  experimental 
and  Bibhcal  method  in  the  defence  of  the  dogmas  of  the 
churches,  and  in  the  support  in  general  of  external  au- 
thority in  rehgion.  At  the  beginning  of  the  century  the 
preaching  of  Great  Britain,  France,  and  the  Netherlands 
was  of  a  higher  order  in  general  than  that  of  Germany. 
But  still  these  better  methods  were  devoted  to  the  defence 
of  a  religion  of  external  authority  and  in  special  of  the 
formulated  doctrines  of  the  churches. 

In  the  churches  of  the  British  colonies  in  this  country, 
and  later  on  of  the  United  States,  this  type  of  preaching  had 
been  introduced  by  our  Puritan  fathers  and  was  the  pre- 
vaihng  method  in  the  Congregational  and  Presbyterian 
churches.  It  was  indeed  largely  of  an  experimental  and 
Biblical  character,  but  this  was  largely  devoted  to  the 
interests  of  confessionahsm,  for  it  was  impossible  even  for 
Puritan  piety  and  Bibhology  to  conceive  of  Christianity 
as  other  than  a  compendium  of  doctrine,  to  acknowledge  the 
relative  insignificance  of  the  logical  understanding  as  an 
organ  of  religious  knowledge,  or  to  admit  that  Christianity 
can  exist  independently  of  the  external  authority  of  the 
church.  Experience  and  Scripture  were  made  to  do  duty 
in  interpreting  and  defending  church  doctrines.  These 
doctrines  of  the  church  were  assumed  adequately  to  in- 
terpret the  truths  of  Scripture  and  the  facts  of  experience. 
They  were  assumed,  whether  correctly  or  incorrectly,  and 
on  the  whole  doubtless  correctly,  to  be  in  harmony  with 
the  best  type  of  religious  experience  at  that  time,  were 
regarded  as  necessary  to  further  it,  and   were  so  used. 


INFLUENCES  OF   THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY      n 

But  everywhere  in  Protestant  Christendom  the  old  con- 
fessional method,  tenacious  of  grip  although  it  was,  had 
become  unfruitful.  Theological  abstractions,  that  did 
not  nourish  the  emotional  or  spiritual  or  moral,  or  even 
intellectual,  and  still  less  the  artistic  life,  had  become  a 
weariness  to  the  spirit.  The  sacred  rights  of  rehgion  had 
been  violated,  and  there  came,  gradually,  through  a  period 
of  previous  preparation,  but  rapidly  in  the  ultimate  issue, 
a  reaction  for  which  the  churches  were  to  a  considerable 
extent  prepared.  The  agencies  and  influences  that  wrought 
productively  in  the  interest  of  reform  we  will  now  more  par- 
ticularly investigate. 

I.  The  earhest  influence,  and  perhaps  the  most  per- 
manent and  beneficent  in  its  results,  was  of  a  distinctively 
rehgious  character.  The  primal  instincts  of  the  rehgious 
nature  reasserted  themselves.  In  Germany  the  rehgious 
movement  appeared  as  a  form  c^mystidism  and  took  the 
name  of  pietism.  Mysticism  A$  subjective  rehgion.  It 
is  rehgion  seeking  to  emancipate  itself  from  the  tyranny 
of  external  media.  It  is^feligion  bringing  the  soul  into 
the  immediate  pretence  qf  God,  and  insisting  upon  its 
right  to  hve  in  inimediate  fellowship  with  Him.^  The 
church  has  never  beepr Without  its  mystics  or  without  its 
mystical  phase  of  piety.  It  is  the  very  heart  of  rehgion. 
It  is  the  very  soul  of  all  most  effective  preaching.  In 
Phihp  James  Spener,  the  founder  of  German  pietism,  we 
have  a  new  phase  of;mystical  rehgion.  Spener's  move- 
ment was  on  the  one  side  a  reaction  against  the  perversion 
and  deterioration  of  the  Christian  hfe  in  the  Lutheran 
church,  of  which  he  was  a  member.  Rehgion  had  be- 
come externalized.  Pohtical  influences  had  corrupted  the 
church,  the  horrors  of  war  had  intensified  the  irrehgion  of 
his  age,  and  confessionalism  at  once  expressed  and  per- 
petuated the  unreahty  of  its  rehgion.  Pohticians  ruled  the 
state  church,  the  authority  of  this  church  supplanted  the 

'  Dorner's  "Hist,  of  Prot.  Theol.,"  Vol.  II,  177-185,  203  ff. 


12  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

authority  of  revelation,  dogma  took  the  place  of  piety,  and 
the  pulpit  was  strong  chiefly  in  scholastic  logic  and  rhetoric. 
There  was  no  proper  organization  of  the  church.  There 
was  no  effective  missionary  work,  and  the  individual 
Christian  life  was  neglected.  But  the  soul  of  the  move- 
ment was  the  revival  of  a  mystical  piety  in  this  great  re- 
ligious genius,  and  its  roots  run  back  to  the  mysticism  of 
the  sixteenth  century.  Spener's  life  is  hid  in  Boheme  and 
Amdt  and  in  the  mystical  theologians  Gerhard  and  Andrea, 
and  in  the  religious  poets  and  hymn  writers,  of  whom  there 
was  a  surprising  number  in  that  degenerate  age,  just  as 
their  life  is  hid  in  the  mystics  of  the  pre-Reformation  period. 
In  his  reaction  against  an  external  religion  and  the 
scholasticism  that  was  its  organ,  Spener  laid  new  accent 
upon  the  experimental  and  ethical  elements  in  preaching, 
and  recalled  a  more  simple,  natural,  spontaneous,  and 
Biblical  type  of  it.  In  point  of  time  Spener  belongs  to 
the  seventeenth  century,  for  his  chief  work  was  done  in 
the  last  quarter  of  it.  But  with  him  is  the  beginning  of 
those  developments  in  the  German  churches,  Lutheran 
and  Reformed  alike,  that  exerted  their  most  powerful 
influence  in  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century.  He 
reasserted  the  Lutheran  principle  of  the  priesthood  of  all 
believers,  laying  fresh  emphasis  upon  the  right,  the  privi- 
lege, and  the  duty  of  the  individual  believer  to  live  in  im- 
mediate fellowship  with  God  and  of  all  the  members  of 
the  church  to  cooperate  in  furthering  the  interests  of  piety. 
Within  the  church  he  organized  private  assemblies  for 
prayer  and  conference  and  Biblical  study.  They  consti- 
tuted the  "Collegia  Pietatis,"  that  gave  the  name  "piet 
ism  "  to  the  movement,  and  were  the  germ  of  the  German 
Conventicle.  He  insisted  upon  spiritual  as  distinguished 
from  intellectual  knowledge,  himself  caring  nothing  for 
learning  that  was  not  tributary  to  piety,  and  maintaining 
that  a  knowledge  of  religion  is  dependent  upon  a  holy  life, 
but  that  such  a  life  is  not  dependent  upon  a  knowledge  of 


INFLUENCES   OF   THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY     1 3 

theology.  He  summoned  the  preachers  of  his  day,  not  to 
a  less  studious,  but  to  a  more  holy  and  godly  life.  He 
called  for  the  abandonment  of  the  dogmatic  and  polemic 
type  of  preaching,  and  recognized  that  only  ks  worthy  of 
the  name  of  preaching  which  was  an  utterance  of  the  heart 
and  conscience,  and  a  testimony  as  to  what  the  preacher 
feels  and  knows  inwardly  of  religious  truth,  and  not  what 
he  knows  of  theology,  logic,  or  rhetoric.  Preaching,  there- 
fore, must  be  experimental,  not  ecclesiastical;  bibhcal, 
not  confessional.  The  aim  of  preaching  is  edification  by 
enrichment  and  intensification  of  the  experiences  of  the 
inner  Hfe,  not  indoctrination  or  increase  in  the  knowledge 
of  abstract  theology.  Theological  behefs  may  be  and 
often  are  wholly  divorced  from  piety.  The  Christian  life 
is  one  of  supreme  devotion  to  Christ.  It  must  rest  wholly 
upon  him,  and  can  rely  as  Uttle  upon  the  doctrines  as  upon 
the  sacraments  of  the  church. 

Spener  was  a  great  personahty.  He  was  above  all  a 
pastor  and  a  pastoral  teacher,  a  teacher  sent  by  God  to 
organize  a  needed  work.  In  all  this  he  reminds  us  of 
Baxter,  his  contemporary,  a  man  of  kindred  spirit,  who 
in  a  Umited  sphere  did  for  the  Enghsh  churches  what 
Spener  did  for  Germany.  Like  Baxter,  he  reestabhshed 
catechetics,  putting  it  upon  a  better  basis,  and  giving  it  a 
new  impulse,  so  that  the  catechumenate  became  tnbutary 
to  the  work  of  the  pulpit,  preparing  the  congregation  for 
the  more  extended  work  of  Biblical  exposition.  His 
objective  point  was  not  the  general  pubhc,  as  was  so  often 
the  case  with  the  pohtical  preaching  of  the  Enghsh  Pun- 
tans,  but  he  aimed  supremely  at  the  quickening,  guidance, 
and  nurture  of  individual  souls.  He  was  not  a  separatist 
and  never  broke  with  his  church.  An  ordained  minister 
was  always  in  attendance  at  the  conventicle,  the  sacra- 
ments were  always  administered  with  ecclesiastical  regu- 
larity, and  his  adherents  were  always  attendants  at  the 
services     of    the    estabhshed     church.       But    orthodox 


14  THE   MODERxN   PULPIT 

confessionalism  rose  in  revolt  against  a  movement  that 
was  undermining  its  influence,  and  Spener  gave  up  the 
conventicle  and  worked  in  the  homes  of  the  people.  He 
reestabhshed  family  worship  and  frowned  upon  all  forms  of 
worldly  amusement.  Like  Baxter,  and  later  on  the  Eng- 
lish Methodists,  who  must  have  been  famiUar  with  his 
movements,  Spener  did  an  immense  amount  of  religious 
work  by  correspondence.  The  University  of  Halle,  of 
which  he  was  one  of  the  founders  and  with  which  Witten- 
berg subsequently  united,  became  the  centre  of  Spener's 
movement.  Before  his  death  in  1705  it  had  spread  into 
all  parts  of  Germany,  and  by  the  middle  of  the  century 
Halle  was  the  most  popular  university  in  Germany,  num- 
bering thousands  of  students  from  all  sections  of  the  country. 
So  sure  are  the  rehgious  feelings,  sentiments,  and  affections 
to  exact  reprisals  of  rehgious  arrogance  and  of  that 
pride  of  external  authority  that  would  rob  them  of  their 
rights. 

As  we  have  seen.  North  Germany  was  the  original  centre 
of  the  pietistic  movement,  where  it  won  its  field  with  won- 
derful rapidity.  After  Spener  it  was  represented  by 
Francke,  his  successor  at  Halle,  who  was  a  more  effective 
preacher  than  Spener  and  a  man  of  great  administrative 
abiHty.  But  by  the  middle  of  the  century  it  had  lost  some- 
thing of  the  strength,  the  dignity,  and  the  reaUty  of  the 
initiative.  It  had  undermined  orthodox  confessionaUsm, 
but  other  hostile  influences  were  now  undermining  it. 
It  intrenched  itself  more  firmly  and  in  better  form  in  South 
Germany,  and  here  the  Swabian  George  Conrad  Rieger, 
a  preacher  of  compelHng  power,  comparable  in  popular 
effectiveness,  it  is  said,  with  Luther  himself,  was  its  most 
notable  representative  in  the  pulpit. 

The  modem  Moravian  church  was  in  some  sort  a  prod- 
uct of  the  pietistic  movement.  Its  leader,  Zinzendorf, 
however,  regarded  the  Halle  school  as  too  subjective  in  its 
piety,  and   defective  in  its  grasp  of  objective  evangelical 


INFLUENCES    OF   THE   EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY     15 

truth.  He  would  not  accept  allegiance  to  the  national 
church,  and  broke  with  it.^ 

For  the  pulpit  the  gain  from  this  great  movement  is 
evident  at  once.  In  the  material  and  formal  sense  it 
modified  the  old  type  of  preaching,  while  it  moderated  the 
extremes  of  a  new  type  that  subsequently  emerged.  It 
appeals  to  experience  and  no  longer  to  mere  external 
authority.  It  rests  upon  a  Scriptural  basis  and  no 
longer  upon  abstract  doctrinal  statements  that  make 
their  appeal  primarily  to  intellectual  assent.  Dogmatic 
arrogance  and  polemic  harshness  give  place  to  a  more 
s\Tnpathetic  and  affectionate  inculcation.  The  evan- 
geHcal,  which  is  the  ethical  and  religious,  conception  of 
faith  is  restored,  and  redemption  as  an  inner  experi- 
ence is  coordinated  and  correlated  with  redemption  as  an 
objective  fact.  Instead  of  the  scholastic,  pedantic,  topical, 
we  have  the  BibUcal,  expository  method.  Preaching  be- 
comes more  simple  and  spontaneous,  more  direct  and 
earnest  and  spiritual  in  tone,  more  practical  and  more 
forceful  in  style,  and  more  popular.  As  an  ultimate 
result,  orthodox  confessionahsm  joined  hands  with  pietism 
in  advocacy  of  the  new  type  of  preaching  and  in  efforts 
to  check  the  progress  of  the  common  enemy,  rationahsm. 

To  the  pietistic  movement  in  Germany  answered  in 
some  respects  the  Puritan  movement  in  England.^  It 
developed  earher,  however,  in  the  seventeenth  century  when 
in  purity  and  power  it  was  at  its  best.  Puritanism  was 
not  primarily  a  reaction  against  ecclesiastical  dogmatism, 
although  this  in  part,  but  against  the  tyrarmy  of  an  eccle- 
siastical institutionahsm  that  refused  to  recognize  the 
sacred  rights  of  conscience.  It  was,  therefore,  involved 
in  pohtical  compHcations,  as  pietism  was  not,  and  was  a 

'  Christlieb's  "Geschichte  der  Christ.  Pred.,"  RealEncy.,  18,558-572; 
Rothe's  "Geschichte  der  Pred.,"  397-404;  Ker's  "History  of  Preaching," 
Lectures  11,  12,  and  13. 

'Stoughton's  "Eccle.  Hist,  of  Eng.,"  Vol.  IL  Chs.  XYH-XXHI; 
Christlieb's  "Geschichte  der  Christ.  Pred.,"  549  fif. 


l6  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

separatist  movement.  But  their  fundamental  principles 
are  the  same.  They  are  at  bottom  an  affirmation  of  the 
sacred  rights  of  the  individual  soul  unconditioned  by  the 
external  authority  of  an  institutional  religion.  Men  like 
Baxter  and  Bunyan,  the  great  pastoral  evangehsts  of  their 
age,  and  Howe  the  great  pastoral  theologian,  and  others 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  men  for  the  most  part  of  great 
learning  and  of  indefatigable  industry,  disclose  the  true 
Puritan  spirit  of  revolt  against  institutional  domination. 
They  held,  indeed,  the  dogmatic  principle  and  their  preach- 
ing was  colored  not  only  by  the  political  and  ecclesiastical, 
but  by  the  theological  controversies  in  which  they  were 
engaged.  But  its  experimental  and  BibHcal  quahty  modi- 
fied to  a  large  extent  its  confessional  quahty.  The  preach- 
ing of  these  men  was  at  once  hberahzing  in  a  sort  and 
fruitful  of  most  beneficent  practical  results.  They  were 
pastoral  preachers  of  great  evangehcal  zeal  and  were 
highly  acceptable  to  the  people.  The  preaching,  as  well 
as  the  fife  in  general,  of  the  Puritan  churches  dechned  in 
spiritual  power  during  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, the  period  in  which  German  pietism  was  most 
flourishing.  But  the  dechne  was  recognized  and  felt  by 
the  most  spiritually  minded  preachers  of  the  time.*  Isaac 
Watts  was,  hke  Baxter,  a  plain,  simple,  direct,  pastoral 
preacher,  tolerant  in  spirit,  and  seeking  always  to  use  the 
truth  for  spiritual  edification ;  and  Phihp  Doddridge,  who, 
in  that  period  of  spiritual  declension,  reminded  the  Puri- 
tan churches  that,  in  order  to  hold  the  allegiance  of  the 
middle  classes  of  England,  who  had  always  been  their  sup- 
porters, they  must  have  "evangelical,  experimental,  plain 
and  affectionate  preachers,"  vindicated  the  clarni  in  an 
eminent  degree  in  his  own  preaching.  Such  men  as  these 
show  that  the  fires  of  Puritan  freedom  and  devotion  were 
still  burning  on  their  altars.  The  Methodist  revival, 
which  has  affihations  with   German  pietism,  belongs  to 

*  Rothe's  "Geschichte  der  Predigt,"  416,  418. 


INFLUENCES    OF   THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY      17 

the  second  half  of  the  centun\  Its  influence  in  modifying 
English  preaching  in  the  estabhshed  church  as  well  as  in 
the  dissenting  bodies  was  powerful,  but  its  most  effective 
development  belongs  to  the  nineteenth  century  and  it  may 
well  be  considered  as  one  of  the  forces  of  that  period. 
Prior  to  the  Methodist  revival  we  do  not  find  that  such 
modifications  as  had  taken  place  in  the  preaching  of  the 
Anglican  church  were  due  to  any  general  rehgious  move- 
ment from  within.  But  what  we  call  evangelical  piety, 
which  is  the  religion  of  subjective  experience,  found  a 
home  in  what  is  known  as  the  evangehcal  branch  of  the 
church.  It  had  certain  affihations  with  Puritan  dissent, 
and  there  were  connected  with  it  individual  preachers  of 
notable  spiritual  as  well  as  oratorical  power.  Whitefield, 
the  evangehst,  and  Wilson,  bishop  of  the  Isle  of  Man,  were 
promoters  in  the  estabhshed  church  of  the  Methodist 
revival  and  were  most  effective  in  all  missionary  enter- 
prise. These  men  represented  something  of  the  Puritan 
spirit  of  religious  independence  and  of  evangelical  zeal 
in  the  Anghcan  church. 

In  Scotland  the  rehgious  movement  developed  in  the 
churches  of  the  Secession  that  antagonized  the  moderate 
or  rationahstic  party  of  the  Kirk,  and  found  ultimate 
expression  in  the  Free  Church.  It  is  true  that  the  preach- 
ing of  Moderatism,  which  was  in  many  respects  of  a  high 
order,  struck  a  hea\7  blow  at  the  old  Scottish  dogmatic 
method,  but  the  preaching  of  the  Secession  returned  to  the 
Bibhcal  method  or  used  it  more  effectively  and  more  fully 
conserved  the  interests  of  piety  and  ultimately  did  more 
effective  service  for  the  Scottish  churches. 

In  America  experimental  rehgion  perpetuated  itself  in 
preachers  Hke  Jonathan  Edwards,  and  men  of  similar 
spirit,  who  gave  themselves  to  the  awakening  of  the  re- 
ligious hfe  of  the  churches  and  who  rescued  them  from  the 
ravage  of  worldhness  and  infidelity,  and  later  on  men  Hke 
President  Timothy  D  wight  wrought  with  great  effectiveness 


l8  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

in  the  same  interest.  It  is  true  that  church  orthodoxy 
and  the  dogmatic  method  in  the  pulpit  still  largely  held 
the  field,  but  in  spirit  it  was  greatly  modified  by  the  ardent 
piety  of  its  chief  representatives.  Jonathan  Edwards  espe- 
cially, with  all  his  vast  intellectual  power,  the  greatest 
metaphysician  and  theologian  of  the  new  world,  and  with 
all  his  dogmatic  assurance,  was  as  ardent  a  pietist  as 
Zinzendorf,  although  of  a  more  rational  type.  No  man 
knows  this  great  spirit  who  does  not  recognize  the  mysti- 
cism that  wrote  "The  Religious  Affections,"  that  came  as 
by  intuition  and  without  the  mediation  of  any  speculative 
or  dialectical  process  to  the  knowledge  of  the  divine 
sovereignty  and  priority,  and  that  was  productive  of  such 
beneficent  results  to  the  New  England  churches.  The 
preaching  of  the  Puritan  churches  of  New  England  was 
essentially  experimental,  and  sought,  although  often  con- 
fessedly under  serious  dogmatic  limitations,  to  be  Bibhcal. 
It  was  most  ardent  in  its  spiritual,  and  most  urgent  in  its 
ethical  tone,  in  its  own  way  seeking  to  promote  the  religious 
and  moral  needs  of  the  people,  and  its  influence  has  never 
been  wholly  lost. 

In  France  the  rehgion  of  subjective  experience,  or  the 
religion  of  the  heart  and  conscience,  was  represented  in 
the  Gallic  Church  by  saintly  men  hke  Fenelon  and  Pascal, 
who  found  the  chief  support  of  Christianity,  not  in  the 
authority  of  the  Roman  church  but  in  the  character  of 
Christ  and  in  the  fitness  of  his  religion  to  meet  the  spiritual 
wants  of  men,  and  who  demonstrate  that  in  that  church, 
even  in  an  age  of  scepticism,  a  mystical  piety  may  be  found. 
But  it  was  in  the  Protestant  churches  that  for  the  most  part 
experimental  rehgion  prevailed.  The  seventeenth  cen- 
tury was  the  blooming  time  of  French  Protestant  preach- 
ing. It  was  the  period  of  the  great  classic  preachers  of 
the  Gallic  church,  and  Protestant  preachers  were  measur- 
ably influenced  by  them.  But  in  purity  of  teaching,  in 
Bibhcal  and  non-dogmatic  tone,  in  religious  fervor,  and  in 


INFLUENCES   OF  THE   EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY     19 

edifying  spiritual  power  they  far  surpassed  these  great 
pulpit  orators,  the  lights  of  the  Gallic  Church.  Claude 
was  the  great  leader  of  the  Protestant  churches.  He  bet- 
tered the  topical  method  that  was  prevalent  in  the  Roman 
church,  against  which  he  vigorously  reacted,  but  laid  chief 
stress  upon  the  Biblical  expository  method,  and  accounted 
as  of  supreme  importance  a  practical  aim  in  the  preacher. 
His  most  notable  successor  was  Saurin,  the  most  distin- 
guished and  brilhant  of  all  French  Protestant  preachers. 
He  disclosed  all  the  leading  excellences  of  the  typical 
French  preacher,  —  clearness,  directness,  epigranimatic 
brevity,  unction,  affectionateness,  pathos,  —  and  in  him  the 
French  Protestant  pulpit  reached  its  highest  point  of  ex- 
cellence. Like  Claude  he  died  in  exile  at  The  Hague  and 
left  no  worthy  successor  in  his  centur}^  It  is  evident  that 
these  French  exiles  were  instrumental  in  influencing  benefi- 
cently the  preaching  of  the  Netherlands,  by  modifying  the 
old  dogmatic  method  that  had  held  sway  there. 

II.  Another  influence  that  wrought  variously  in  the  work 
of  modification,  in  part  disastrously,  but  in  the  long  run 
and  in  the  large  sense  productively  and  beneficently,  was 
a  new  movement  of  intellectual  Hfe.  It  was  in  line  with 
the  awakenmg  of  the  mental  life  of  the  age  that  effort 
should  be  made  somehow  to  bring  rehgion  into  closer  and 
better  working  relation  with  those  larger  and  more  cor- 
rect views  of  human  nature  and  of  human  life  and  of  the 
material  world  that  were  then  in  process  of  development, 
and  so  to  make  rehgion  seem  more  natural  and  more 
reasonable.  It  began  to  be  seen  that  the  only  rational 
and  credible  religion  is  one  that  is  bedded  in  the  constitu- 
tion of  human  nature,  whose  principles  are  in  harmony 
with  its  laws  and  somehow  in  harmony  with  the  universe 
in  which  men  live.  The  church  indeed  had  rightly  aimed 
to  secure  faith  in  a  religion  that  is  above  nature,  for 
that  can  be  no  religion  that  is  simply  an  independent 
product  of  nature,  but  it  had  succeeded  in  lea\ing  the 


20  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

impression  that  Christianity  is  against  nature.  It  reaches 
man,  not  by  appropriating  and  assimilating  nature,  but 
by  breaking  it  down  and  subduing  it.  A  hard  and  fast 
line  was  drawn  between  nature  and  the  supernatural,  and 
the  supernatural  is  successfully  revealed  only  by  suspend- 
ing the  order  of  nature.  This  is  what  was  known  as  the 
ecclesiastical  view  of  rehgion.  Grace  treats  nature  as 
hostile  and  aims  at  its  conquest  by  sheer  supernatural 
force.  This  view  was  regarded  as  unreasonable  because 
it  was  unnatural.  In  the  newly  awakened  intellectual  life 
men  began  to  look  at  rehgion  more  closely  in  its  relation  to 
the  estabhshed  order.  Hence  developed  what  was  known 
as  "natural  rehgion,"  or  religion  conceived  as  belonging 
to  the  constitution  of  human  nature  and  as  in  harmony 
with  the  order  of  the  world.  A  movement  hke  that,  when 
once  freed  from  its  original  crudeness,  surely  could  not 
fail  to  be  attended  ultimately  with  most  beneficent  results. 
At  the  outset  it  was  by  no  means  hostile  to  Christianity 
reasonably  interpreted.  It  was  a  genuine  effort  to  har- 
monize the  natural  and  the  supernatural  and  to  find  a 
more  reasonable  basis  for  Christian  faith. 

In  Great  Britain  ^  this  movement  emerged  in  the 
philosophical  and  theological  controversies  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  and  later  on  in  the  deistic  controversy  of 
the  eighteenth  century  and  ultimately  proved  hostile  in 
many  ways  to  Christianity  and  to  all  religion.  The  con- 
troversies of  the  church  with  Dutch  Arminianism,  which 
was  of  a  different  type  from  that  to  which  later  on  John 
Wesley  adhered  and  its  controversies  with  Socinianism 
and  Arianism  were  all  involved  in  this  intellectual  awaken- 
ing of  the  age,  and  in  its  effort  to  naturalize  rehgion 
deism  did  not  at  first  deny  the  supernatural  element  in 
Christianity,  although  it  may  b?  questioned  whether  the 

'See  Cairns'  "Unbelief  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,"  I,  III;  Tul- 
loch's  "Rational  Theology  and  Christian  Philosophy  in  England  in  the 
Seventeenth  Century." 


INFLUENCES   OF  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY     21 

denial  be  not  legitimately  involved  in  it.  At  any  rate  in 
its  effort  to  show  that  all  religion  is  natural,  Christianity 
included,  it  finally  lost  all  grasp  of  religion  as  supernatural 
and  reduced  Christianity  to  a  species  of  naturalistic  ethics. 
Thus  it  became  hostile  to  the  religion  of  revelation.  By 
denying  that  religion  involves  in  itself  the  conception  of 
revelation,  by  reducing  it  to  a  product  of  the  ethical  con- 
sciousness, and  by  assigning  to  ethics  a  utihtarian  character, 
it  at  last  became  hostile  to  religion  itself.  This  bald  natural- 
ism ultimated  in  scepticism,  infidehty,  and  atheism.  The 
religious  life  of  the  churches  became  cold  and  formal. 
The  mystical  element  in  rehgion  was  discredited.  All 
imagination,  all  feeling,  affection,  and  sentiment  were 
ruled  out  of  it  and  it  became  a  matter  of  institutional  pru- 
dence. The  presence  in  the  estabhshed  church  of  sneerers 
like  Sterne  and  Dean  Swift,  whose  Christianity  was  alto- 
gether apparently  of  an  external  and  prudential  sort,  is 
evidence  of  the  degeneracy  of  the  pulpit.  In  fact  the 
Christianity  of  such  estimable  men  as  Addison  and  John- 
son lacked  the  evangelical  note  and  was  largely  a  matter 
of  institutional  wisdom  and  respectabihty,  rather  than 
of  ardent  piety.  The  apologetics  of  the  church  was  in- 
adequate. When  the  ecclesiastical  conception  of  Chris- 
tianity was  attacked,  it  had  no  adequate  defence.  Ortho- 
doxy, drawing  a  hard  and  fast  line  between  the  natural 
and  the  supernatural,  was  driven  to  the  position  that  the 
supernatural  can  reveal  itself  in  the  order  of  nature  only 
by  a  species  of  external  violence  that  arrests  attention  to 
itself,  and  these  external  manifestations  become  the  only 
adequate  evidence  in  support  of  Christianity.  Men  like 
Hume  and  "Tom"  Paine  took  advantage  of  this  weak 
point  in  the  defence  of  Christianity.  They  applied  the 
agnostic  method  in  discrediting  religion.  If  the  chief  evi- 
dences of  Christianity  are  of  this  external  character,  it  has 
no  sufficient  defence,  for  these  evidences  furnish  no 
adequate  basis  of  support  for  a  positive  afi&rmation.     No 


22  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

amount  of  external  evidence  is  sufficient  to  substantiate 
a  miracle.  We  cannot  reach  here  even  a  basis  of  proba- 
bility, for  there  is  always  a  stronger  probability  that  the 
witnesses  lied  or  were  deceived  than  that  the  miracle  hap- 
pened. This  sort  of  reasoning  took  hold  of  the  upper 
classes,  that  were  to  a  large  extent  connected  with  the 
estabUshed  church.  All  this  was  the  unfortunate  outcome 
of  an  inadequate  conception  of  nature  and  of  the  relation  of 
the  supernatural  to  it.  So  long  as  the  position  was  held 
that  religion  must  be  bedded  in  the  constitution  of  human 
nature  and  could  not  be  hostile  to  it,  there  could  be  no 
antagonism  to  the  interests  of  religion.  But  when  the 
position  was  taken  that  there  can  be  no  rational  and 
credible  religion  that  is  not  contained  within  the  Hmits  of 
nature  and  that  the  order  of  nature  cannot  adjust  itself 
.to  a  supernatural  world,  the  intellectual  movements  of 
the  age  became  hostile  to  religion  and  so  to  the  preaching 
of  the  church,  especially  of  the  established  church,  but, 
measurably,  also,  of  the  Puritan  and  Scottish  churches. 
In  this  intellectual  agitation  the  Unitarian  schism  origi- 
nated. This  movement  was  doubtless  a  genuine  effort 
to  make  Christianity  more  credible,  because  in  harmony 
with  human  nature.  It  doubtless  conserved  important 
rehgious  and  moral  interests.  Its  influence  upon  the  work 
of  preaching  has  in  many  ways  been  a  very  valuable  in- 
fluence. But  it  will  doubtless  be  generally  conceded  that 
its  philosophic  basis  was  inadequate.  Its  conception  of 
reason  and  its  conception  of  nature  were  not  broad  enough. 
It  was  inferior  in  ethical  and  religious  significance  to 
American  Unitarianism  that  developed  later  on,  and  its 
influence  upon  the  rehgious  life  of  the  churches  has  not 
been  what  might  have  been  wished. 

The  pohtical  conditions  of  the  age  were  also  hostile  to 
an  earnest  religious  hfe.  The  picture  which  Bishop  Bur- 
net gave  of  the  frivolity,  the  ignorance,  the  impiety,  and 
even  immoraUty  of  the  clergy  of  the  estabhshed  church  in 


INFLUENCES    OF   THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY     23 

his  day  is  a  proof  of  the  mahgn  influence  of  scepticism  and 
of  political  corruption  even  among  so  intelligent  a  body  of 
men  as  could  be  found  in  that  church.  Pohtical  corrup- 
tion was  in  a  sort  of  alhance  with  scepticism  to  discredit 
rehgion,  and  a  species  of  vulgar  religious  infidehty  under 
the  lead  of  "Tom"  Paine  was  spread  among  the  common 
people,  the  influence  of  which  even  the  Puritan  churches 
did  not  altogether  escape. 

Moderatism  in  Scotland,  with  all  the  thoughtfuhiess  and 
literar}'  grace  of  such  representative  preachers  as  Blair,  was 
in  too  close  alhance  with  the  naturahstic  school,  and  was 
not  promotive  of  the  piety  of  the  churches. 

English  deistic  naturahsm  got  footing  in  France  and 
alhed  itself  with  the  democratic  instincts  of  the  French 
people.  Under  the  leadership  of  men  Hke  Vokaire  and 
Rousseau  it  became  a  source  of  intellectual  and  pohtical 
revolution.*  Its  unfavorable  results  are  seen  in  the  preach- 
ing of  the  Roman  Catholic  church.  The  Christianity  pre- 
sented by  the  classic  French  preachers  was  not  of  the 
highest  type  even  from  the  Roman  point  of  view.  It  was 
affected  by  the  disintegrating  influences  of  the  age.^  The 
Protestant  pulpit  was  less  unfavorably  influenced,  but  it 
had  already  dechned  in  power.  It  was  an  age  of  spiritual 
degeneracy  among  the  upper  classes,  and  of  pohtical  and 
social  degeneracy  among  the  populace,  and  people  and 
preachers  ahke  had  lost  moral  and  religious  earnestness. 

From  England  and  France  these  influences  reached 
America,  and  the  war  of  the  Revolution  intensified  them. 
The  American  pulpit  deteriorated  in  moral  and  spiritual 
power,  and  the  condition  of  Yale  College  during  the  early 
part  of  President  Dwight's  administration  illustrates  the 
mental  attitude  towards  Christianity  of  the  educated  men 
of  the  time. 

But  there  is  a  better  side.     Already  in  the  seventeenth 

>  Cairns'  "  Unbelief  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,"  Lecture  IV. 
*  Rothe's  "  Geschichte  der  Predigt,"  388  ff. 


24  '  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

century  in  Great  Britain  there  were  men  of  learning  in  the 
estabhshed  church  who  wisely  and  worthily  recognized 
the  intellectual  demands  of  the  age  upon  the  pulpit.  It 
was  a  period  of  illustrious  men:  Cudworth  and  Stilling- 
fleet,  theologians,  and  Taylor,  South,  and  Barrow,  preach- 
ers in  the  estabhshed  church,  and  Baxter,  Owen,  and 
Howe  among  the  Puritans.  It  was  the  most  flourishing 
period  of  Enghsh  Puritanism.  It  was  the  period  of  the 
Westminster  Assembly.  Archbishop  Tillotson  was  the 
representative  preacher  of  this  period.  As  a  preacher 
inferior  in  many  respects  to  Taylor,  South,  and  Barrow, 
he  was  nevertheless  a  larger  and  more  commanding  per- 
sonality. He  received  his  early  education  among  Puritan 
dissenters  and  was  a  man  of  breadth  of  mind  and  catho- 
licity of  feehng,  liberal,  tolerant,  candid,  moderate.  His 
influence  as  a  preacher,  not  only  upon  the  cultivated  classes 
of  the  established  church,  and  upon  the  Puritans,  who 
represented  the  common  people  of  England,  but  upon  the 
preachers  of  France,  Holland,  and  Germany,  was  greater 
than  that  of  any  Englishman  of  his  day.  A  thorough 
student  of  philosophy  and  ethics,  he  was  eminently  fitted 
for  the  work  of  an  apologetic  preacher,  which  he  was 
characteristically.  In  his  defence  of  Christianity  against 
the  deism  of  his  age,  he  chose  the  naturahstic  point  of 
view.  Christianity  is  in  accord  with  nature.  It  is  the 
completion  of  natural  religion,  but  it  is  something  more. 
He  was  something  of  a  utilitarian  and  dealt  largely  with 
the  profitableness  of  religion.  Although  an  apologist,  he 
was  eminently  a  practical  preacher,  and  in  the  presentation 
of  the  ethical  elements  of  Christianity  was  far  in  advance 
of  the  orthodox  preachers  of  the  age.  Some  of  his  wisest, 
profoundest  and  most  helpful  sermons  are  on  domestic 
education  and  the  culture  of  domestic  religion.  He  sub- 
jected the  ethical  elements  in  Christianity  to  fresh  exami- 
nation, made  new  appHcation  of  them,  and  restored  prac- 
tical preaching.     He  was  hostile  to  all  pulpit  pedantry, 


INFLUENCES   OF   THE   EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY     25 

Opposed  Puritan  elaboration  and  prolixity,  demanded 
simplicity  and  directness,  and  preached  with  clearness, 
plainness,  strength,  and  dignity.  In  EngHsh  style  he  is 
recognized  as  the  predecessor  of  Dr}den.  Addison  re- 
garded him  as  a  model  in  diction,  and  he  was  known  in 
his  day  as  a  popular  preacher.  Following  Tillotson  and 
his  illustrious  contemporaries,  we  find  ourselves  in  the  age 
of  Clarke  and  Warburton  and  Sherlock  and  Butler.  Not 
without  success  these  men  sought  to  adapt  the  thought  of 
their  age  to  the  reUgious  needs  of  the  church.  The 
Manxm'an  Wilson,  the  poet-preacher  Young,  and  Fawcett, 
the  pulpit  orator  and  rhetorician,  are  among  the  promment 
hghts  of  the  Anglican  pulpit  of  that  time,  and  Watts  and 
Doddridge  are  proof  that  although  Puritanism  had  lost 
much  of  its  purity  and  strength,  Puritan  Christianity  was 
not  without  intelHgent  and  able  defenders. 

In  America,  Jonathan  Edwards  represents  the  mtel- 
lectual  influences  of  the  age  in  their  highest  form.  With 
all  his  devotion  to  Biblical  religion  and  all  his  ardent  piety, 
he  was  a  rational  and  independent  thinker  of  incomparable 
metaphysical  power.  No  man  of  his  age  combined  in  such 
measure  respect  for  the  rights  of  human  reason,  as  it  was 
then  understood,  with  devotion  to  the  doctrines  of  the 
church,  and  to  the  claims  of  Christian  experience,  and  no 
man  was  more  influential  in  introducing  a  rational  method, 
according  to  the  conceptions  of  the  day,  in  defending  the 
truth  of  Christianity  and  in  modifying  the  old  dogmatic 
method.  In  the  latter  part  of  the  century  the  preaching 
of  President  Dwight,  combining  in  admirable  proportions 
the  rational  and  the  ethical,  discloses  a  distinct  break  with 
the  old  and  unfruitful  methods  of  defending  religion  m  the 

pulpit.  .  ■  A    f 

In  France  we  find  ourselves  once  more  in  the  period  ot 
the  classical  preachers.  We  are  in  the  period  of  Louis  XIV 
and  his  successors.  It  is  an  age  of  intellectual  culture 
among  the  upper  classes.     Its  culture  was  to  a  considerable 


26  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

extent  humanistic  rather  than  ecclesiastical.  The  Gallic 
church  was  in  close  touch  with  the  upper  classes,  and  its 
preachers,  by  their  learning  and  eloquence,  perpetuated  its 
influence  among  these  classes,  an  influence  that  did  not 
penetrate  to  the  circles  below  them.  England,  with  its 
representative  government,  developed  the  forensic  type  of 
orator)',  and  the  Enghsh  orators  reached  the  common 
people  as  well  as  the  upper  classes.  In  the  pulpit  the 
influence  is  seen  in  Tillotson  and  his  contemporaries. 
While  he  and  his  associates  were  introducing  into  the 
EngUsh  pulpit  a  more  intelhgent  and  reasonable  type  of 
preaching,  the  great  classical  preachers  were  elevating  the 
standards  of  the  French  pulpit.  The  age  of  Tillotson  is 
the  age  of  Bossuet.  Elevation  of  thought  and  clearness 
and  elegance  of  diction  were  the  characteristics  of  these 
French  preachers.  Bossuet  was  preeminently  the  dog- 
matic and  eulogistic  preacher,  Bourdaloue  the  ethical, 
and  Massillon  the  sentimental  preacher.  It  was  their 
common  aim  to  adapt  the  culture  of  their  time  to  the  de- 
fence of  religion.  Protestant  preachers  vied  with  the 
preachers  of  the  Roman  church  in  effort  to  reach  the  people, 
but  they  were  less  successful  with  the  upper  classes. 
Saurin  was  the  flower  of  this  intellectual  movement  among 
the  Protestant  churches.  He  was  a  man  of  philosophic 
habit  of  mind  as  weU  as  a  rhetorician  of  the  more  temperate 
sort,  a  student  of  Descartes  and  Malebranche,  and  he 
wrought  indirectly  the  results  of  his  philosophic  thinking 
into  his  preaching. 

In  Germany  we  find  ourselves  among  the  predecessors 
of  Kant  and  in  the  period  of  preparation  for  the  Illumina- 
tion. Leibnitz,  Wolff,  and,  later,  Lessing,  are  among  the 
sources  of  intellectual  influence.  It  is  the  beginning  of 
the  naturahstic  movement  that  passed  from  England  and 
France,  that  took  the  form  of  rationalism,  and  culminated 
in  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth  centur>'.  Of  its  bad 
effects  upon  the  German  pulpit,  it  is  not  necessary  to  speak 


INFLUENCES   OF  THE  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY     27 

at  length.  What  is  called  "vulgar  rationalism"  completely 
abandoned  supernatural  religion.  Religion  was  divorced 
from  morality,  or  rather  was  identified  with  and  lost  in 
morahty.  To  teach  such  morahty  there  was  needed  only 
the  hght  of  nature,  and  reason  and  conscience  were  enough 
for  the  guidance  of  hfe.  Thus  rationahsm  became  hostile 
to  rehgion.  This  involved  the  deification  of  man  and  yet 
a  narrow  view  of  life.  Morahty  became  utihtarian  and 
external.  Preaching  dealt  with  small,  ethical  subjects, 
lacked  the  inspiration  of  great  thoughts  and  great  themes, 
and  its  better  method  of  ordering  thought  was  no  com- 
pensation for  its  lack  of  emotional  freedom  and  spiritual 
energy.  But  there  were  men  who  represented  the  preach- 
ing of  rationahsm  at  its  best  and  are  not  to  be  classed  with 
the  vulgar  rationaUsts  who  peddled  moral  frivoHties  from 
the  pulpit.  They  had  not  altogether  abandoned  faith  in 
supernatural  Christianity,  although  they  failed  to  accentu- 
ate its  distinctive  supernatural  teachings.^  Among  these 
was  ZolHkofer  of  the  Reformed  church,  court  preacher  at 
Leipzig,  and  Spalding  of  the  Lutheran  church,  court 
preacher  at  Berlin.^  They  valued  supremely  the  teaching 
element  in  preaching  and  laid  strong  emphasis  upon  clear 
and  discriminating  statement.  They  dealt  with  moral 
truths,  beheving  that  the  people  need  guidance  in  their 
moral  duties,  and  they  laid  these  truths  upon  the  con- 
science in  a  rhetorically  effective  manner.  They  sought 
to  cover  a  wide  field  in  their  ethical  inculcation,  intro- 
duced themes  that  are  generally  excluded  from  the  German 
pulpit,  and  illustrated  them  from  wide  ranges  of  secular 
knowledge.  They  were  topical  preachers  and  used  their  texts 
with  the  freedom  that  is  possible  only  to  this  type  of  preach- 
ers. But  the  most  beneficent  result  of  this  great  intel- 
lectual awakening  that  forced  the  orthodox  and  pietistic 
churches  ahke  to  a  more  reasonable  defence  of  Christianity 

•  Rothe's  "Geschichte  der  Predigt,"  429-437. 

^  Christlieb's  "  Geschichte  der  Christ.  Pred.,"  Real  Ency.,  576-579; 
Ker's  "History  of  Preaching,"  Lecture  XIV. 


28  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

and  to  a  more  effective  method  of  preaching  is  seen  in  a 
different  class  of  preachers.  There  is  no  need  to  Unger 
with  the  different  schools  of  preaching  that  were  the  prod- 
uct of  this  awakening,  or  to  note  their  merits  and  defects. 
It  should  be  acknowledged  that  directly  or  indirectly  they 
were  ultimately  tributary  to  the  bettering  of  German 
preaching.  They  modified  orthodox  conceptions  of  God, 
of  man,  of  nature,  and  of  the  relation  of  God  to  humanity 
and  to  the  universe,  and  they  forced  pietism  to  the  culture 
of  intellectual  virility/  This  influence  is  seen  in  the  pietism 
of  South  Germany,  as  it  was  represented  by  the  school  of 
Bengel.  In  Oethinger,  a  disciple  of  Bengcl,  this  philo- 
sophic influence  took  a  theosophic  form.  He  undertook 
to  find  within  the  Hmits  of  Christianity  itself  a  complete 
philosophic  system.  Christianity  is  a  theosophy  which, 
without  the  aid  of  any  external  support,  is  able  to  furnish 
its  own  instruments  of  rational  defence.  This  conception 
of  Christianity  was  doubtless  based  upon  an  erroneous 
principle  of  interpretation,  and  was  wholly  unsatisfactory 
in  its  results.  Its  successor  in  our  day  is  found  in  the 
school  of  Biblical  hteralists.  But  it  bore  witness  to  the 
influence  of  the  intellectual  movements  of  the  age,  to  a 
recognition  of  the  necessity  of  finding  a  philosophic  basis 
for  reUgion,  and  it  resulted  without  question  in  a  great  im- 
provement in  the  preaching  of  the  pietistic  school.^ 

But  the  best  type  of  this  intellectual  movement,  of 
immense  value  to  the  pulpit  of  the  age,  was  found  in  what 
may  be  called  the  mediating  school  of  North  Germany. 
Among  the  earliest  representatives  of  this  tendency  was 
Rambach,  professor  at  Halle,  and  colleague  of  Wolff, 
the  philosopher.  He  was  a  disciple  of  Spener  and  was 
numbered  with  the  Halle  pietists.  But  he  was  a  man  of 
independent  mind,  of  broad  scholarship,  was  influenced  by 
the  philosophic  spirit  of  Wolff,  and  saw  that  the  preaching 

'  Rothe's  "  Geschichte  der  Predigt,"  429-437. 

*  Christlicb's  "  Geschichte  der  Christ.  Pred.,"  564-567. 


INFLUENCES   OF  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY     29 

of  the  Halle  school  needed  new  fibre  and  new  method. 
It  was  his  task  to  better  its  preaching  on  the  intellectual 
side.  His  material  was  Biblical,  after  the  manner  of  the 
pietistic  school,  but  his  humanistic  culture  brought  new 
material  from  without,  and  he  developed  and  illustrated 
it  in  a  fresh  and  attractive  way,  while  his  order  was  logical 
according  to  the  canons  of  the  Wolffian -school.  He  was 
the  pioneer  in  a  reform  of  evangelical  German  preaching 
on  the  intellectual  side,  a  predecessor  of  Mosheim,  who 
regarded  him  as  a  model.  He  was  an  ethical  preacher, 
who  had  a  very  definite  conception  of  what  the  sermon 
should  accomphsh,  who  adapted  his  method,  which  was 
careful  and  clear  in  statement  and  logical  in  arrangement 
of  arguments,  to  his  aim,  and  so  secured  a  variety  which 
modified  the  stereotyped  method  of  his  day.  Mosheim,  who 
died  about  the  middle  of  the  century,  still  further  developed 
Rambach's  movement,  but  excelled  him  especially  in  lit- 
erary form.  In  a  very  eminent  degree  he  was  a  promoter 
of  the  literary  reform  in  German  preaching,  and  it  will 
therefore  be  more  appropriate  to  classify  him  accordingly.^ 
Reinhard,  the  Dresden  court  preacher,  who  passes 
over  into  the  first  decade  of  the  nineteenth  centur}^  (f  1812), 
most  fully  represents  the  later  mediating  school  of  the 
century.  Although  powerfully  influenced  by  the  intellec- 
tual movements  of  his  age,  he  never  lost  faith  in  super- 
natural religion.  He  represents  the  rationality  of  the 
philosophical  thinker,  the  supernaturalism  of  the  evangeli- 
cal pietist,  and  the  literary  and  rhetorical  culture  of  the 
humanist.  He  does  not  obtrude  his  supernaturalism, 
nor  deal  very  largely  with  the  theology  of  the  church. 
It  was  his  aim  to  make  Christianity  seem  reasonable  to 
the  thinking  men  of  his  time,  bringing  into  prominence 
its  ethical  and  human  elements,  at  the  same  time  appealing 
to  the  religious  instincts  and  to  religious  interests.  He 
was  a  topical   preacher  of  the  Mosheim  school,  severely 

*  Rothe's  "  Geschichte  der  Predigt,"  452-457. 


30  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

logical  in  method,  speaking  strongly  to  the  understanding, 
and  satisfying  the  philosophic  thinkers  of  his  day,  while 
he  spoke  also  to  the  conscience  and  to  the  imagination 
and  the  emotions,  and  so  fertile  was  he  in  homiletic 
suggestion  that  he  has  been  called  "The  Inexhaustible." 
His  conception  of  what  preaching  should  be  is  given  in 
his  autobiographical  confessions  relating  to  his  preaching 
and  to  his  ministerial  culture  in  letters  to  a  friend,  in  the 
following  words:  "Clear  order,  parts  firmly  knit  into 
one  whole,  interesting  and  pertinent  to  the  condition  of 
the  hearer,  and  practical  with  reference  to  the  interests 
of  hfe,  language  pertinent,  i.e.  clearness  for  teaching, 
a  pictorial  quality  for  description,  strength  for  admonition, 
power  for  persuasion,  and  tranquilhty  for  comfort.  Preach- 
ing should  move  every  side  of  the  heart.  The  style 
should  speak  to  the  ear,  full  but  not  bombastic,  resonant 
but  not  rhythmical.  Thus  it  would  speak  to  the  under- 
standing clearly,  to  the  memory  tenaciously,  to  the  feehngs 
stimulatingly,  to  the  heart  awakeningly.  Thus  one  would 
speak  with  high  simplicity,  noble  dignity,  and  beneficent 
warmth  as  one  should  speak."  ^  This  ideal  of  preach- 
ing, which  Reinhard  reahzed  and  which  he  furthered, 
bears  witness  to  the  combination  of  intellectual,  ethical, 
spiritual,  and  artistic  impulses  that  wrought  within  the 
chief  German  preachers  of  that  age,  and  it  indicates  the 
modifications  German  preaching  had  already  undergone 
in  fine  with  the  advancing  humanistic  culture.  We  see 
especially  in  Reinhard  the  fruit  of  the  new  interest  this 
great  intellectual  awakening  had  secured  in  the  whole 
problem  of  German  preaching.  The  whole  subject  was 
threshed  out  anew.  The  intellectual  quahty  of  preach- 
ing was  bettered.  It  took  closer  connection  with  human 
life.  It  appropriated  the  fruits  of  a  better  culture.  There 
is  no  longer  exclusive  appeal  to  dogmatic  authority,  nor 

^  Gestandnisse,  s.  54  f.  Quoted  by  Rothe,  454.  The  Confessions 
have  been  translated  into  Enghsh  by  Oliver  A.  Taylor  and  memoirs 
have  been  added.     An  interesting  volume. 


INFLUENCES   OF   THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY     31 

to  Biblical  revelation,  nor  even  to  the  inner  experiences 
of  the  Christian  life.  The  appeal  is  to  the  native  intelU- 
gence  of  men  as  well,  to  the  native  moral  instincts,  and  to 
the  native  sense  of  moral  need.  And  all  these  changes 
had  a  favorable  result  in  the  structural  and  rhetorical 
form.  Preaching  became  more  rational,  more  practical, 
more  methodical,  more  artistic,  nor  in  the  long  run  did 
it  suffer  in  emotional  and  spiritual  power.  It  may  be 
freely  acknowledged  that  even  extreme  types  of  naturalism 
and  rationahsm  have  ultimately  made  important  contribu- 
tions to  the  intellectual,  the  ethical,  and  the  artistic  factors 
in  preaching.  But  much  more  important  in  all  ways 
have  been  the  contributions  of  those  schools  that  have 
mediated  between  confessionaUsm  and  radicahsm.  Not 
only  in  the  preaching  of  Germany,  but  in  that  of  Great 
Britain  and  of  the  United  States,  do  we  see  the  results.  In 
thoughtfulness,  in  ethical  pertinence,  and  in  artistic  skill, 
it  bears  witness  to  the  influence  of  this  great  movement 
of  the  intellectual  Uf e,  which  was  one  of  the  most  character- 
istic marks  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

III.  Associated  on  the  one  side  with  the  religious  move- 
ments of  the  age  that  furthered  the  interests  of  an  experi- 
mental and  practical  Christianity,  and  on  the  other  side 
with  those  intellectual  movements  that  furthered  the 
interests  of  a  rational  Christianity,  there  was  a  Biblical 
movement  of  an  advanced  type.^  It  involved  an  awaken- 
ing of  the  historical  and  critical  spirit  in  the  religious  hfe. 
The  revival,  as  we  have  already  seen,  brought  preaching 
back  to  a  Biblical  basis.  It  is  a  notable  fact  that  in  gen- 
eral an  awakened  religious  life  turns  as  by  instinct  to  the 
fresh  Hving  fountains  of  BibHcal  revelation. 

The  best  and  most  pronounced  t}^e  of  experimental 
preaching  is  hkely  to  be  Biblical  in  its  quahty,  and  the 
best  tj'pe  of  subjective  religion  is  pretty  sure  to  attach 
itself    to   objective    revelation.     Some   form    of    external 

*  Ker's  "History  of  Preaching,"  Lecture  XV. 


32  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

revelation  seems  to  be  necessary  to  the  religious  life.  It 
is  a  degenerate  type  of  piety  that  abandons  a  Scriptural 
basis.  We  see  this  in  the  history  of  German  pietism. 
Before  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  Bibhcal 
pietism  of  Spener  had  been  abandoned.  It  is  the  defect 
of  all  mystical  piety  that  lacks  the  balance  of  rationality, 
and  the  right  sort  of  objective  guidance  and  support, 
that  it  tends  to  an  extreme  of  subjective  individuahsm 
and  sentimentahsm.  We  see  this  in  the  history  of  many 
of  the  mystical  sects.  Spener  saw  the  danger  of  carrying 
the  subjective  principle  too  far  in  his  reformatory  work, 
and  sought  to  avoid  extremes.  But  before  he  died  he 
saw  his  own  followers  plunging  into  the  very  extremes  he 
sought  to  avoid.  The  individual  Christian  hfe  was  ahen- 
ated  from  the  community  hfe  of  the  church.  At  the  same 
time  it  lost  its  hold  of  the  evangehcal  principle  of  Chris- 
tian freedom.  As  in  the  case  of  English  Puritanism  a 
legal  and  ascetic  principle  was  smuggled  into  it.  By  a 
singular  contradiction  the  more  ascetic  and  Judaistic  it 
became  the  more  subjectively  sentimental  and  emotional 
it  became,  and  at  last,  as  always,  it  turned  to  cant  and 
unreahty.^  But  what  is  more  specifically  to  the  point  in 
hand,  the  more  subjective  pietism  became  the  less  Bibhcal 
it  became.  It  came  to  undervalue  Bibhcal  knowledge. 
The  preaching  of  the  pietistic  school  became  less  edifying, 
because  less  fruitful  in  Bibhcal  material,  and  so  increasingly 
irrational.  It  was  against  this  extreme  irrationality  that 
the  rationahstic  movement  reacted,  and  at  last  it  became 
wholly  alienated  from  every  form  of  mystical  piety. 

This  material  and  formal  degeneracy  of  the  preaching 
of  pietism  was  preeminently  true,  however,  of  North 
Germany.^  In  South  Germany,  particularly  in  Wiirtem- 
berg,  pietism  retained  more  of  its  original  purity,  and 
its  preaching  was  more  reasonable  and  more  effective. 

*  Rothe's  "Geschichte  der  Predigt,"  401-402. 

*  Christlieb's  "Geschichte  der  Christ.  Pred.,"  564  ff. 


INFLUENCES   OF  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY     33 

And  yet  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  the  Bibhcal  basis 
of  the  entire  pietistic  movement  was  inadequate.  It 
lacked  a  thorough  critical  knowledge  of  the  Bible  and 
its  exegesis  was  faulty.  A  neW  Bibhcal  movement  was 
needed,  therefore,  in  the  interest  of  the  rehgious  Hfe  of  the 
churches.  The  intellectual  activity  of  the  age  demanded 
it.  It  came  in  South  Germany,  and  it  was  precisely 
this  movement  which,  by  a  more  correct  interpretation  of 
the  Bibhcal  rehgion  of  redemption,  seeking  to  promote 
the  interests  of  genuine  piety,  succeeded  here  in  perpetuat- 
ing a  more  elevated  type  of  it.  Bengel  was  the  head  of 
this  movement  and  the  representative  of  a  new  school 
of  preachers  of  a  higher  mystical  type  that  originated  in 
it.  He  may  be  called  the  founder  of  a  type  of  Bibhcal  or 
more  correctly  exegetical  theology  that  has  been  of  great 
value  to  the  Christiaa  churches.  It  is  a  noteworthy  and 
interesting  fact  that  Emesti  and  Bengel,  representatives 
in  Bibhcal  criticism  of  the  interests  of  evangehcal  piety, 
antedate  the  school  of  negative  critics.  It  must  be  re- 
garded as  in  some  sort  a  fortunate  thing  for  the  churches 
of  this  country  that  they  rather  than  Semler  and  Eichhorn, 
or  Strauss  and  Baur,  were  earhest  known  in  most  of  our 
divinity  schools.  The  historical,  as  well  as  the  evangeh- 
cal, spirit  was  not  lacking  among  these  pietists  of  the 
German  churches,  and  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  the 
modem  Bibhcal  movement  originated  in  the  interest 
of  a  positive  and  not  a  negative  religion.  Bengel  was  a 
man  of  profound  scholarship  as  well  as  of  piety,  and  was 
on  terms  of  cordial  intimacy  with  the  Halle  men.  In- 
fluenced by  the  intellectual  life  of  his  age,  and  avoiding 
the  extremes  of  subjective  sentiment,  his  piety  was  of  a 
reasonable  and  healthy  sort.  It  was  strong  on  the  critical 
and  reflective  side.  He  was  indeed  a  Bibhcal  reahst, 
holding  the  position  that  the  Scriptures  of  themselves 
alone  contain  aU  knowledge  that  is  essential  to  the  thought 
and  life  of  the  church.     The  Scriptures  have  never  been 


34 


THE   MODERN   PULPIT 


adequately  interpreted  by  the  dogmas  of  the  church,  nor 
fully  interpreted  in  any  other  way,  but  are  known  ade- 
quately only  by  being  subjected  to  ever  fresh  investigation. 
Like  Puritan  John  Robinson,  he  believed  that  "more 
light  is  to  break  out  of  God's  word,"  and  he  laid  stress 
upon  the  unity  and  the  historic  progress  and  continuity 
of  redemptive  revelation.  His  "Gnomon,"  which  was 
placed  in  the  hands  of  English  and  American  theological 
students  about  the  middle  of  the  last  centur>',  and  which 
proved  to  be  a  most  useful  guide  in  Bibhcal  exegesis,  is  a 
monument  of  the  new  Biblical  movement,  worthy  the 
attention  of  the  preacher  even  in  our  own  day.  It  coni- 
bines  in  good  measure  the  critical  and  the  religious  spirit 
and  has  been  richly  suggestive  in  the  work  of  the  preacher. 
George  Conrad  Rieger,  a  far  greater  preacher  than  Bengel, 
was  the  most  brilliant  and  effective  representative  of  this 
Biblical  school  in  South  Germany,  using  Bengel's  fertile 
method  of  exegesis  in  a  most  richly  suggestive  manner. 
He  was  eminently  a  Bibhcal,  evangehstic  preacher,  whose 
supreme  aim  was  to  awaken  men  to  a  consecrated  and 
active  Christian  life.  "One  should  go  to  God's  house," 
he  says,  "saying,  'I  will  go  to  the  awakening  hour,'  and 
should  be  able  to  say  on  returning  home,  '  I  come  from  the 
hour  of  awakening,  and  am  awakened,  aroused,  strength- 
ened, bettered,  and  made  thankful,  wilHng,  joyful. ' "  Karl 
Henry  Rieger,  his  son,  belongs  to  the  same  school  of 
Bibhcal  evangelical  preachers,  and  combines  good  homiletic 
method  with  thoughtfubiess,  practical  wisdom,  and  piety.* 
It  was  in  North  Germany,  later  on,  after  the  pietistic 
movement  had  begun  to  decline,  that  Biblical  criticism 
alUed  itself  with  the  more  radical  intellectual  movements  of 
the  age.  Semler,  who  by  a  strange  turn  in  the  fortunes  of 
theology,  was  professor  in  Halle  University,  the  home 
of  the  pietists,  is  known  as  the  father  of  the  critical  school 
of  German  rationalism.     Semler  and  Eichhom  and  other 

>  Christlieb's  "Geschichte  der  Christ.  Pred.,"  565-568. 


INFLUENCES   OF   THE   EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY     35 

radical  critics,  although  by  no  means  hostile  to  the  inter- 
ests of  religion,  held  the  naturahstic  or  deistic  point  of 
view  and  ruled  the  supernatural  out  of  the  Scriptures. 
Some  of  the  later  critics  like  Strauss  were  Pantheists, 
following  Hegel  in  his  view  that  God  as  the  Absolute,  who 
comes  to  consciousness  in  humanity,  in  the  process  of 
gradual  self-disclosure,  can  reveal  himself  as  the  absolute 
only  in  humanity  as  a  whole,  and  therefore  cannot  be 
revealed  in  an  individual  finite  personality  like  Jesus 
Christ,  and  hence  that  all  supernatural  claims  for  him 
must  be  rejected.  Others  were  rationalists  who  followed 
Kant  and  discarded  the  supernatural  as  having  no  place 
in  a  religion  which  can  be  known  only  within  the  limits  of 
reason.  The  influence  of  the  radical  school  of  criticism 
upon  the  German  pulpit  was  doubtless  in  many  respects 
disastrous.  But  that  indirectly,  in  the  long  run  and  on 
the  whole,  the  result  has  also  in  many  respects  been  benefi- 
cent will  hardly  be  questioned. 

In  Great  Britain  and  in  the  United  States  Biblical 
study  allied  itself  for  the  most  part  with  the  experimental 
and  evangelical  or  apologetic  interest,  and  thus  through 
the  pulpit  became  tributary  to  the  faith  and  piety  of 
the  churches.  In  the  Anglican  church  in  the  seventeenth 
century  Archbishop  Tillotson,  in  the  interest  of  a  more 
intelligent  defence  of  Christianity,  gave  himself  for  four 
or  five  years  after  his  graduation  from  the  University,  to 
diligent  study  of  the  Scriptures  and  was  perhaps  the  most 
thorough  Biblical  scholar  among  the  preachers  of  his  day. 
He  was  a  topical  preacher,  rarely  using  more  than  one  or 
two  verses  of  Scripture  as  his  text,  whose  main  thought 
became  the  basis  of  his  discussion,  and  he  strongly  criti- 
cised the  orthodox  confessionalists  for  dealing  capriciously 
with  single  words  as  their  texts  and  forcing  out  of  them  all 
sorts  of  illegitimate  meanings.  He  used  the  expository  in- 
troduction, and  there  was  a  considerable  amount  of  Bibli- 
cal exposition  in  the  main  body  of  the  sermon.     Jeremy 


36  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

Taylor  also  was  to  a  large  extent  a  Biblical  preacher  and 
so  was  Robert  South. 

In  the  evangelical  churches  of  Scotland  and  in  the 
Puritan  churches  of  England  and  America,  the  Bibhcal 
quahty  of  preaching  increased  in  value,  and  the  Biblical 
combined  with  the  experimental  quality  tended  to  the 
rescue  of  preaching  from  the  extreme  of  dogmatic  confes- 
sionaUsm  on  the  one  side  and  of  subjective  emotionalism 
or  rationahsm  on  the  other  side.  In  the  conflict  with  the 
naturalism  of  their  day,  evangelical  preachers  were  driven 
to  a  more  thorough  and  intelligent  examination  of  the 
Scriptures,  and  the  Bibhcal  element,  which  deals  with 
historic  religion,  has  never  lost  its  hold  of  the  British  and 
American  pulpit. 

In  France  respect  for  the  Bibhcal  and  experimental 
quahty  was  from  the  first  the  point  of  differentiation  be- 
tween the  preaching  of  the  Roman  and  Protestant  churches. 
And  yet  in  France,  as  well  as  in  Great  Britain  and 
America  there  was  no  critical  movement  in  the  eighteenth 
century  that  was  at  all  comparable  with  that  of  Germany. 
There  was  a  bettering  of  Bibhcal  exegesis,  but  the  his- 
torical and  critical  method  was  not  thoroughly  domesti- 
cated. It  was  not  until  within  the  last  half  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  that  the  pulpit  in  these  countries  has 
appropriated  to  any  considerable  extent  the  results  of  a 
modem  knowledge  of  the  Bible,  and  that  has  come  largely 
through  the  influence  of  German  scholarship. 

IV.  As  involved  in  the  movements  of  the  intellectual 
life  of  the  age  there  was  developed  a  new  hterary  spirit, 
which  soon  made  itself  felt  in  the  pulpit.  In  England 
Archbishop  Tillotson,  of  whom  frequent  mention  has 
already  been  made  in  other  relations,  and  his  contempo- 
raries had  already  disclosed  the  beginning  of  this  influence 
in  their  preaching.  In  the  Scottish  pulpit  we  see  this 
later  on  in  the  preaching  of  Blair.  Tillotson  and  Blair, 
as  we  have  seen,  were  accepted  as  models  by  French  and 


INFLUENCES   OF   THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY     37 

German  preachers,  and  it  was  largely  on  account  of  their 
literary  merits.  We  find  ourselves  here  in  the  so-called 
Augustan  age  of  EngHsh  literature,  the  age  of  Addison, 
Johnson,  Pope,  Steel,  and  Swift.  The  artistic  aspects  of 
preaching  were  bettered,  as  under  Sir  Christopher  Wrenn 
the  quahty  of  church  architecture  was  at  the  same  time 
greatly  enriched.  The  prominent  preachers  of  the  age 
were  not  only  students  of  classical  rhetoric  and  oratory, 
but  of  the  literature  of  their  own  time.  Preachers  Uke 
Sterne  and  Swift  disclose  a  better  literary  spirit  and  but 
little  else,  and  Fawcett  illustrates  it  in  higher  reaches  of 
rhetorical  and  oratorical  power.  The  preachers  of  America 
were  in  general  under  English  influences,  and  EngHsh 
hterature  did  not  wholly  fail  to  reach  the  American  pulpit, 
but  there  was  no  native  hterature. 

The  great  preachers  of  France,  Gallic  and  Protestant, 
were  not  only  students  of  classical  literature,  rhetoric,  and 
oratory,  but  they  showed  those  literar}-,  those  rhetorical, 
and  oratorical  gifts  which  seem  to  be  the  typical  French- 
man's heritage  and  which  were  at  that  time  cultivated  as 
a  matter  of  national  pride. 

In  Germany  much  interest  was  awakened  in  the  national 
hterature.  Societies  were  formed  for  the  discussion  of 
literary  problems  and  for  the  culture  of  hterary  taste. 
The  German  language  was  studied  with  new  interest  and 
diligence  in  the  universities  and  training  schools.  It  is 
the  period  of  preparation  for  romanticism,  the  hterary 
phase  of  the  Illumination.^  EngHsh  and  French  and  to 
some  extent  Dutch  influences  in  various  Hnes  had  made 
themselves  felt  in  Germany.  Frederick  the  Great  was 
the  patron  of  English  and  French  Hterature  and  was 
interested  in  philosophical  and  theological  questions. 
As  crown  prince  he  had  translated,  before  the  middle  of 
the  century,  some  of  the  sermons  of  the  classical  French 

*  Real  Ency.,  X,  328-333;  Rothe's  "  Geschichte  der  Predigt,"  424- 
427;  Ker's  "  History  of  Preaching,"  241-244. 


38  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

preachers.  He  was  a  correspondent  of  Voltaire,  who  also 
for  a  time  became  a  resident  at  his  court.  Tillotson,  as  we 
have  already  seen,  and  Saurin,  because  of  the  excellence 
of  their  hterary  style  largely,  were  adopted  by  German 
preachers  as  models.  In  connection  with  all  this  we  find 
the  beginnings  of  aspiration  for  a  new  national  hterature. 
Mosheim,  Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Gottingen, 
the  well-known  and  once  widely  studied  church  historian, 
was  one  of  the  early  promoters  of  this  literary  awakening 
in  the  German  pulpit.  He  was  a  man  of  great  learning, 
of  broad  culture,  and  of  a  cathohc  spirit,  not  unHke  the 
Enghsh  broad  churchman,  comparable  with  Tillotson, 
with  whom  in  fact  he  has  been  hkened,  gifted  with  un- 
usual oratorical  power  for  a  German,  thorough  master 
of  the  German  language,  and  an  occasional  preacher,  who 
had  time  to  elaborate  his  discourses.  The  scholastic 
type  of  preaching  had  been  undermined,  pietistic  preach- 
ing had  degenerated,  and  naturalistic  influences  were 
chilling  the  piety  of  the  churches.  Mosheim  undertook 
the  task  of  combining  in  his  preaching  a  reasonable  and 
intelhgent  orthodoxy,  with  devout  rehgious  feeling,  a 
philosophic  spirit,  and  a  better  literary  form.  He  held 
on  to  the  theology  of  the  church,  which  he  wished  to 
defend  against  the  unsettling  influences  of  his  day,  but, 
although  not  a  naturalist  or  rationalist  or  free  thinker, 
he  was  strongly  affected  by  the  intellectual  influences 
about  him,  and  while  he  would  not  undermine,  but  rather 
defend,  the  teachings  of  the  church,  he  would  introduce 
into  his  preaching  a  more  reasonable  conception  of  Chris- 
tianity and  would  apply  it  more  fully  to  the  practical 
interests  of  men.  He  preached  to  intelhgent  and  cultivated 
audiences  and  suited  his  preaching  to  their  needs.  Like 
Tillotson,  he  was  an  apologetic  preacher.  He  was  at 
home  in  history,  used  the  historical  arguments,  and 
appealed  to  the  external  evidences  in  his  defence  of  Chris- 
tianity.    His  humanistic  tendencies  are  seen  in  the  rational 


INFLUENCES  OF  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY  39 

methods  of  his  defence,  in  the  material  he  appropriated 
from  secular  sources,  and  in  his  literary  style.  He  aimed 
at  rehgious  instruction,  but  it  did  not  occupy  so  prominent 
a  place  as  in  the  confessional  school.  Indoctrination  is  not 
the  aim,  for  religious  opinion  is  not  the  chief  end.  He 
did  not  linger  in  the  restricted,  ecclesiastical  realm,  but 
entered  the  broader  world  of  human  thought.  He  would 
bring  his  hearers  to  a  life  of  rehgious  reflection,  not  as 
the  confessional  preacher  did  by  the  expounding  of  church 
dogmas,  nor  as  the  Bibhcal  pietists  did  by  the  exposition 
of  Bibhcal  material,  and  he  sought  to  move  the  emotions, 
but  not  as  the  sentimental  pietists  did.  He  sought  to 
move  the  mind,  but  in  such  a  way  as  would  move  the 
feehngs  and  the  will.  His  aim  therefore  is  distinctly 
ethical  and  religious.  The  seimon  in  his  hands  is  less 
elaborate  than  the  confessional  sermon  and  more  methodi- 
cal than  the  pietistic  sermon.  The  rational  and  rhetorical 
aim  of  the  sermon  demands  good  method,  but  the  method 
must  be  simple.  He  was  a  topical  preacher  and  demon- 
strated, as  did  Horace  Bushnell,  that  in  skilful  hands 
the  topical  sermon  may  be  in  the  best  sense  popular. 
Discussion  and  apphcation  are  the  two  processes,  as  we 
find  frequently  in  the  preaching  of  the  French  Saurin  and 
the  EngHsh  Barrow.  But  Mosheim  illustrates  preemi- 
nently the  hterary  influences  of  his  age.  His  style  was 
vigorous,  weighty,  and  dignified,  but  elegant  as  well  and 
with  a  certain  statehness,  like  that  of  Reinhard.  His  diction 
was  popular,  for  it  was  concrete  and  largely  illustrative, 
and  he  was  an  orator  as  well  as  rhetorician.  The  logical 
interest  was  important,  but  the  rhetorical  was  equally  so. 
In  the  qualities  named  Mosheim  marks  a  new  era  in 
German  preaching.  The  best  preachers  of  his  day  and 
subsequently  were  his  followers.  He  did  not  reach  the 
common  people  as  the  best  class  of  preachers  in  South 
Germany  did,  but  his  influence  with  the  educated  and 
cultivated   class  was  very  great.     Reinhard  belonged   to 


40  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

the   school  of  Mosheim  and  illustrated  Mosheim's   best 
qualities. 

The  defects  of  the  extreme  rationalistic  school  con- 
stantly revealed  themselves  as  religious  and  literary 
influences  gained  ascendency,  and  by  the  end  of  the  century 
it  was  already  in  process  of  decline.  It  had  no  adequate 
conception  of  the  necessities  of  the  rehgious  nature  in  its 
emotional,  spiritual,  and  aesthetic  aspects.  It  supported 
a  defective  theory  of  the  authority  of  reason,  defective 
because  it  had  a  wrong  conception  of  the  nature  of  reason 
and  because  all  the  elements  necessary  to  a  reasonable 
mental  judgment  were  not  taken  into  account.  It  sought 
indeed  to  make  rehgion  reasonable,  according  to  its 
narrow  conception  of  reason.  It  endeavored  to  restore  it 
to  simpUcity  and  purity  and  beneficence  and  sought  what 
is  universal  in  it.  Against  the  narrowness,  intolerance, 
and  unnaturalness  of  traditional  religion  it  brought  a 
powerful  appeal.  It  tried  to  understand  human  nature 
and  to  meet  its  legitimate  demands.  It  was  an  age  of 
new  theories  in  education,  and  it  discovered  more  natural 
and  simple  pedagogic  methods.  It  began  to  get  at  the 
historic  foundations.  It  had  in  its  best  estate  a  lofty 
moral  ideal.  It  has  been  said  that  rationahsm  had  a  good 
rehgion  but  a  bad  theology,  but  in  fact  its  theology  was 
bad  because  its  rehgion  was  inadequate.  It  failed  to 
satisfy  the  higher  nature  of  man.  It  needed  Schleier- 
macher  to  cut  at  the  root  of  it,  by  showing  the  indestructi- 
bleness  of  the  rehgious  nature.  But  it  needed  something 
more.  Rationahsm  had  a  defective  aesthetic  as  well  as 
rehgious  basis.  It  was  the  hterary  movement  of  the  age, 
product  indeed  of  its  intellectual  hfe,  but  out  of  harmony 
with  its  dry  rationahsm,  that  developed  the  aesthetic 
element  in  religion  more  fully  than  it  had  ever  before 
been  developed,  and  this  came  during  the  last  part  of  the 
century  as  a  phase  of  romanticism.  Herder  of  Weimar, 
the  friend  of  Goethe  and  Schiller,  represented  the  aesthetic 


INFLUENCES    OF   THE   EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY     41 

element  in  its  fullest  measure  and  highest  form.  He 
was  a  rationalist  and  mystic  combined,  closely  aUied 
with  the  Illumination,  yet  devoted  to  the  interests  of 
religion.  "He  was  not  only,"  said  Jean  Paul  Richter 
when  Herder  died,  "a  star  of  the  first  magnitude,  but  a 
whole  group  of  luminaries  in  one."  Kant  was  his  teacher 
in  philosophy  and  Lessing  his  literary  progenitor.  "Give 
me  a  great  thought  that  I  may  quicken  myself  with  it,"* 
he  is  said  to  have  exclaimed  on  his  death-bed,  and  the 
words  disclose  his  prevaihng  intellectual  aspirations.  But 
against  the  hard  and  dr\'  rationahsm  of  his  day  he  reacted 
as  vigorously  as  Schleiermacher.  "Light,  love,  life," 
were  the  watchwords  of  his  career.  It  was  his  task 
to  open  up  the  eternally  fresh  fountains  of  Bibhcal  feeling 
and  sentiment.  He  held  attention  to  the  immense  wealth 
of  Biblical  hterature  which  discloses  in  highest  degree  the 
aesthetic  and  rehgious  spirit,  and  to  its  unity  of  life  as 
well,  and  this  is  his  great  value  for  German  preaching.  He 
showed  that  "one  will,  one  spirit,  one  power  from  the  first 
word,  'Let  there  be  Hght,'  to  the  last,  'Even  so  come, 
Lord  Jesus,'  has  led  the  ever  rising  God- willed  course 
of  mankind."  "Leave,"  he  says,  " your  physics  and  meta- 
physics at  home,  step  reverently  into  the  halls  of  glory, 
of  all  human  culture,  into  the  temple  of  the  revelation  of 
God,  learn  to  read  the  Bibhcal  writings,  not  as  if  they 
were  modem  books,  but  with  the  consciousness  that  they 
were  wTitten  in  an  oriental  spirit,  in  a  language  strange 
to  us,  and  were  in  ideas  and  conceptions  as  widely  different 
from  ours  as  heaven  from  earth,  and  they  will  seem  to  you 
no  longer  hke  an  antiquated  book  of  fables  and  tales,  and 
just  as  little  a  book  of  dogmatic  legislation.  Rather  wiU  you 
find  here  how  the  Father  has  nourished  and  guided  upwards 
his  children  ...  I  have  far  greater  desire  to  know 
and  apply  the  divine  in  these  writings  than  to  grub  over 
the  question  as  to  the  sort  of  it,  and  of  its  entrance  into  the 

*  Jean  Paul  Richter's  "  Campanerthal,"  347. 


42  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

souls  of  the  writers.  We  do  not  understand  how  God 
works  within  our  souls  as  in  nature,  and  should  we  be  able 
to  fathom  his  sacred  workings  in  the  souls  of  his  beloved  ? 
If  you  do  not  hear  the  sound  of  his  step  as  the  coming  of 
a  friend  or  of  a  beloved,  but  will  measure  it  like  a  slave 
and  grope  in  the  dark,  you  will  never  hear  his  coming."  V 
Here  we  have  a  man  who  was  filled  with  the  great 
thoughts  and  emotions  and  imaginings  that  bear  sway  in 
this  book,  and  through  him  it  became  a  new  book  to  the 
men  of  his  age.  In  this  Biblical  spirit  he  sought  to  better 
not  only  the  preaching,  but  the  catechetics  and  the  hturgies 
of  the  church,  and  his  influence  upon  secular  pedagogy 
was  strong.  He  was  preeminently  an  educator.  The 
influence  of  his  Biblical  asstheticism  pervades  his  preaching, 
and  he  brought  back  the  Biblical  homily  with  new  signifi- 
cance and  in  new  form.  "I  became,"  he  says,  "a  theolo- 
gian only  out  of  love  to  the  Bible.  In  it  I  find  the  purest 
word  of  God,  his  speech  to  the  children  of  men,  the  whole 
full  Christian  truth."  ^  His  conception  of  the  preacher's 
function  corresponds.  "He  is  not  a  teacher  of  wisdom 
and  virtue,  but  a  preacher  of  reUgion,  God's  speaker,  a 
prophet,  who  deals  with  what  has  life  in  itself,  with  piety, 
with  life,  with  God."  Here  we  have  a  new  contribution 
not  only  to  the  preacher's  work,  but  to  Christianity  itself. 
He  mediates  between  the  rationahstic  and  the  mystical  ten- 
dency. He  touches  the  men  of  culture  and  the  men  of  piety, 
and  prepares  the  way  for  Schleiermacher.  He  is  a  counter- 
weight to  the  dull  orthodoxism,  the  barren  rationalism,  and 
the  destructive  criticism  of  his  day,  and  he  enriches  Ger- 
man preaching  on  its  aesthetic  as  well  as  religious  side. 
Another  of  the  products  of  the  hterary  and  religious 
spirit  of  the  age  was  Lavater  of  Zurich,  who  died  in  the 
opening  year  of  the  last  century.     He  was  a  man  of  great 

'  Dr.  August  Werner's  "  Herder's  Bedeutung  in  der  Evangeliscben 
Kirche."     "  Die  Predigt  der  Gegenwart."     Drittes  Heft,  297,  1887. 

^  Dr.  August  Werner's  "Die  Predigt  der  Gegenwart."  Drittes  Heft, 
273,  1887. 


INFLUENCES   OF   THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY     43 

creative  imagination,  of  most  delicate  poetic  susceptibility, 
responsive  to  all  that  w^as  best  in  his  age  and  most  produc- 
tive in  his  use  of  it  in  the  interest  of  men.  So  unique  was  he 
that  he  was  called  "A  man  of  God  without  genealogy.'" 
It  was  the  "storm  and  stress"  period,  the  period  of  intellec- 
tual and  political  revolution,  and  it  made  a  most  powerful 
impression  upon  him.  He  was  educated  in  the  school  of 
moderate  rationahsm  represented  by  Spalding,  which 
gave  him  footing  in  the  naturaHstic  and  humanistic  side 
of  life,  and  served  to  moderate  somewhat  his  wild  poetic 
enthusiasm.  Of  the  early  period  of  his  life  he  says, 
"My  heart  needed  at  that  time  no  Christ,  only  a  God  to 
hear  my  prayer."  '  But  later  on  Christ  became  the  passion 
of  his  life.  To  him  Goethe  writes,  "Thy  thirst  for  Christ 
to  me  is  pitiable."  Yet  he  calls  him  "the  best,  greatest, 
wisest,  heartiest  of  all  mortal  and  immortal  men  whom  1 
have  known,"  and  says  of  him  that  he  has  "the  highest 
human  understanding,  combined  wdth  the  most  horrible 
superstitions.^  These  superstitions  were  in  part  his  beHef 
in  the  Bibhcal  miracles,  and  on  account  of  them  Goethe 
broke  with  him.  Lavater  apprehends  Christianity  emo- 
tionally^ as  Herder  aesthetically.  His  preaching  was  full 
of  passion  and  dramatic  power,  like  that  of  Whitefield. 
It  swept  over  his  audience  like  a  whirlwind.  His  message 
was  what  men  were  longing  to  hear,  and  he  was  welcomed 
almost  as  a  messenger  from  heaven  wherever  he  preached. 
His  poems  were  cherished  by  Wieland  as  sacred,  and  another 
German  poet  has  called  them  "the  cordial  of  his  soul, 
his  quickening,  his  joy  and  his  consolation."  *  He  was 
a  philanthropist  as  well  as  poet  and  preacher,  and  his  work 
for  the  poor  in  Zurich  remains  like  that  of  Francke  at 
Halle  to  this  day.  He  made  it  a  regulative  principle 
of  his  life  to  do  some  specific  work  of  pastoral  benevolence 

'OeWer's  "  Halte  was  du  Hast,"  148.     Jan.  10,  1887. 

'  Ibid.,  145.  '  Ibid.,  145,  146. 

*  Oehler's  "Zeitschrift  ftir  Pastoral  Theologie,"  4  Heft,  146,  1887. 


44  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

each  day,  and  almshouses,  hospitals,  and  orphan  asylums 
were  the  sphere  of  his  special  activity.  As  to  the  power 
of  his  preaching  a  contemporary  compares  him  in  per- 
suasive effectiveness  to  Mirabeau,  and  Stefifens,  a  well- 
known  preacher  of  Copenhagen,  spoke  of  him  as  follows : 
"As  the  sharp  voice,  the  hollow,  penetrating  tones  of  the 
distinguished  man  were  heard  they  made  such  an  impres- 
sion on  me  that  I  almost  failed  to  hear  his  prayer.  I  was 
obUged  to  Hsten  with  strained  attention  to  his  discourse, 
if  I  would  understand  it.  There  was  a  deep,  powerfully 
penetrating  heart-inwardness  about  his  discourse.  It 
was  as  if  I  heard  a  voice  for  the  first  time  which  I  had 
long  desired  to  hear."  ^  He  was  in  the  highest  sense  an 
experimental  and  Bibhcal  preacher.  His  method  was 
orderly,  his  diction  poetic,  his  style  fluent  and  energetic, 
and  his  oratory  full  of  fire.  He  has  told  us  his  conception 
of  preaching.  "To  make  a  sermon  that  pleases  a  great 
crowd,  that  is  admired,  imitated,  bruited  about,  that  is  of 
very  Httle  account  in  itself.  But  a  sermon  that  really 
edifies,  really  interests  the  heart  and  penetrates  it  v^dth 
its  warming  power,  while  it  illuminates  the  understanding, 
a  sermon  that  leaves  a  Hvely  searching  sting  behind  it, 
that  follows  the  hearer  and  in  the  hours  of  temptation, 
long  after  the  sound  of  it  has  died  away,  comes  up  as  it  were 
dancing  through  the  heart,  a  sermon  that  does  not  please, 
that  stirs  all  the  flesh  in  revolt  against  it  and  yet  pleases, 
that  cannot  be  kept  out  of  the  mind,  nor  refuted,  openly 
found  fault  with  perhaps,  but  cannot  be  otherwise  than 
approved  by  the  heart,  that  is  the  work  of  the  wisdom, 
the  spirit  and  the  power  of  Christ."  ^  We  thus  see  that 
Lavaterxwas  an  evangehstic  preacher,  Hke  Conrad  Rieger, 
but  he  was  also  a  product  of  the  culture  as  well  as  of  the 
piety  of  his  age. 

The  results  of  these  movements  of  the  age  upon  Chris- 

*  "Oehler's  Zeitschrift,"  4  Heft,  149,  1887.  '  Ibid.,  150. 


INFLUENCES   OF   THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY    45 

tian  preaching  have  already  been  touched  upon,  but  we 
may  appropriately  attempt  here  a  brief  summary. 

The  awakened  rehgious  hfe  secured  for  preaching 
especially  a  new  subjective  basis.  It  became  the  utterance 
of  a  new  rehgious  experience.  It  turned  the  preacher 
away  from  that  which  is  external  to  the  depths  of  the  inner 
life,  from  a  dogmatic  to  an  experimental  basis.  It  turned 
him  from  abstract  to  historic  rehgion,  and  brought  him 
into  immediate  connection  with  the  nourishing  sources 
of  Christian  piety.  Preaching  became  more  devout 
and  spiritual,  more  emotional  and  ethical,  aiming  at  the 
production  of  Christian  character  and  the  regulation  of 
Christian  conduct,  and  appropriating  feehng  and  imagina- 
tion as  its  instruments  it  became  more  rhetorically  effective 
and  reahzed  definite  and  determinate  results. 

The  awakened  intellectual  life  secured  for  preaching 
a  more  rational  basis,  greater  firmness  of  fibre  and  variety 
of  tone,  bettered  its  ethical  as  well  as  intellectual  aim,  and 
its  structural  form. 

The  Bibhcal  movement  secured  for  it  a  sounder  exegeti- 
cal  basis,  brought  it  back  to  a  historic  foundation,  restored 
to  it  a  more  distinctly  Christian  quahty,  in  the  long  run 
furthered  its  highest  rehgious  interests,  and  became  tribu- 
tary to  a  simpler  homiletic  method. 

The  Hterary  movement  elevated  its  tone,  enriched  its 
rhetorical  quahty,  and  preaching  became  more  humanistic 
and  less  ecclesiastic,  and  at  the  same  time  less  rationaUstic 
and  less  subjectively  emotional. 

The  chief  defect  of  the  preaching  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  a  defect  that  was  not  wholly  overcome,  was  that, 
in  its  defence  of  Christianity,  it  hngered  too  exclusively 
in  the  realm  of  external  evidence.  But  as  a  basis  for 
modification  in  the  preaching  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
we  have  a  better  combination  of  the  rational,  the  ethical, 
the  spiritual,  and  the  rhetorical  quahties.  By  reason  of 
this  combination  the  preaching  of  the  last  century  reached 


46  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

the  more  effectively  the  mind,  the  conscience,  the  heart, 
and  the  will.  Those  influences  did  not  bring  full  fruitage, 
but  they  were  never  wholly  lost.  They  were  foundations 
and  prepared  the  way  for  what  emerged  later.  But  it 
was  given  to  the  century  from  which  we  have  emerged 
to  carry  out  into  concrete  practical  results,  under  new  con- 
ditions and  in  new  combinations,  those  movements  of 
the  previous  age.  These  and  other  influences  have 
been  bearing  fruit,  and  only  in  the  present  day  are  they 
disclosing  their  full  significance.  The  more  important 
of  those  influences  that  emerged  during  the  last  century 
and  that  have  secured  for  us  a  distinctively  modem 
type  of  preaching  it  will  be  our  purpose  now  to  consider. 


w 


CHAPTER  II 

DOMINANT  INFLUENCES  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY 

"■*'  I.  The  development  of  the  physical  sciences  was  the 
most  notable  phenomenon  of  the  last  century.  The  num- 
ber of  important  scientific  discoveries  during  that  period, 
it  is  said,  was  nearly  double  the  number  in  all  previous 
centuries,  and  the  changes  in  the  conditions  of  human  life 
during  the  last  half  of  the  century  that  resulted  from  these 
scientific  developments  were  greater  than  in  a  thousand 
years  before.  The  ground  for  it  of  course  had  already 
been  laid.  To  know  and  to  do  deference  to  the  constitu- 
tion of  things  was  one  of  the  aspirations  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  and  to  a  considerable  extent  of  the  two  centuries 
preceding.  Nature  was  one  of  its  most  familiar  terms. 
To  know  its  realities  and  to  live  agreeably  to  its  laws  was 
one  of  its  regnant  ideas,  and  reverence  for  its  order  had 
begun  to  be  a  prominent  phase  of  its  reUgion.  Nature, 
therefore,  was  an  object  of  eager  investigation.  It  was 
human  nature,  indeed,  that  was  the  special  object  of  study, 
and  philosophy  was  more  fully  developed  than  science. 
Man  was  more  fully  known  than  the  world  in  which  he 
lives,  and  yet  we  have  the  large  beginnings  of  physical- 
science.  Its  great  contribution  was  not  a  developed 
knowledge  of  scientific  phenomena  or  a  comprehensive 
grasp  of  scientific  facts,  but  a  spirit  of  research,  a  zeal  for 
reality,  the  establishment  of  the  principles  of  classification, 
the  discovery  of  laws,  and  above  all  the  estabhshment  and 
vindication  of  the  inductive  or  scientific  met^hod.  The 
discovery  and  classification  of  physical  phenomena  on  a 

47 


48  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

large  scale,  and  a  certain  creative,  a  certain  idealizing, 
activity  in  dealing  with  these  phenomena  which  binds 
them  into  the  unity  of  a  vast  system,  belong  conspic- 
uously to  the  nineteenth  century,  and  the  influence  of 
this  scientific  spirit  has  perhaps  more  strongly  and  more 
widely  affected  the  thought,  the  tone,  and  the  methods  of 
the  age  than  any  other.  The  methods  of  science  have 
had  a  dominating  influence  in  all  our  modem  thinking. 
We  are  obUged  to  use  the  scientific  method  in  all  reliable 
investigation.  It  has  fostered  respect  for  facts,  undermined 
external  authority,  and  developed  the  virtue  of  intellectual 
independence  and  integrity.  Men  leam  to  love  the  truth 
for  its  own  sake  and  become  fearless  of  the  consequences 
of  honest  investigation.  They  learn  to  value  exact  knowl- 
edge, and  the  influence  of  this  upon  the  education  of 
ideahsts  like  Frederick  Robertson  is  a  notable  phenome- 
non to  which  every  preacher  may  well  give  heed.  There 
has  resulted  a  vigorous  reaction  against  all  slipshod  meth- 
ods of  investigation,  for  scientific  training  is  training  in 
methodical  habits  of  thought.  It  is  the  foe  of  all  unverifi- 
able  assumptions,  all  intellectual  crudeness  and  inaccuracy ; 
and  all  mystical  vagaries,  all  substitution  of  fancy  for  fact, 
have  become  evidential  of  an  untruthful  habit  of  mind. 

It  has  prepared  the  way  in  the  sphere  of  rehgion  for 
a  more  adequate  conception  of  the  ever  abiding,  all- 
pervasive  presence  of  God  in  the  Universe.  Science 
itself  indeed  may  give  us  nothing  more  than  the  unknown 
and  unknowable  energy  beneath  all  phenomena  and  lead 
us  to  nothing  that  is  personal  or  spiritual.  But  it  has 
given  us  a  new  universe,  for  it  finds  one  great  pervasive 
energy,  one  all-inclusive  force  that  holds  all  things  in  unity 
and  gives  us  an  ideal  order,  and  this  very  conception  of  an 
immanent  energy  readily  allies  itself  with  other  sources  of 
knowledge  that  contribute  the  conception  of  an  immanent 
personal  God.  It  is,  however,  the  scientific  habit  of  mind 
that  is  its  greatest  contribution.     It  is  the  cultivation  of 


INFLUENCES   OF   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY    49 

this  habit  of  mind  that  stimulates  curiosity,  that  drills 
the  faculty  of  thought,  quickens  the  imagination,  intensi- 
fies our  powers  of  investigation,  expands  our  intelHgence, 
fosters  a  spirit  of  reverence  as  we  gain  deeper  knowledge 
of  the  vastness  of  the  material  universe,  and  with  the 
great  scientist  may  lift  us  into  a  great  ecstasy  as  we 
come  to  know  ourselves  as  thinking  God's  thoughts 
after  Him,  but  fosters  also  a  spirit  of  modesty  as  we  find 
the  Hmits  of  our  knowledge.  The  influence  of  all  this 
upon  the  true  preacher  is  evident.  And  it  is  this  scientific 
habit  of  mind  that  to  a  large  extent  accounts  for  what 
may  be  called  the  naturalistic  tendency  so  common  in 
our  day.  I  mean  by  this  a  certain  bias  towards  the 
naturalistic  explanation  of  all  material  phenomena  and 
all  forms  of  human  experience,  a  tendency  to  enlarge 
our  conception  of  nature,  and  to  five  and  to  do  our  thinking 
more  completely  within  its  boundaries.  That  this  has 
become  a  prevailing  habit  of  mind  among  the  educated 
classes  and  is  becoming  more  prevalent  among  the  un- 
educated, there  can  be  no  doubt.  It  is  in  fact  deeply  rooted 
and  widely  pervasive  in  all  classes  that  are  at  all  subject 
to  the  influences  of  modern  life.  It  is  a  distinctive  charac- 
teristic of  what  calls  itself  modern  culture.  It  runs  back 
indeed  into  past  centuries,  but  under  the  influence  of  the 
scientific  habit  of  mind  it  had  a  most  extraordinary 
development  during  the  century  just  closed.  It  may 
take  connection  indeed  with  those  views  of  the  world 
which  have  always  been  held  by  deism,  pantheism,  and 
materiahsm.  But  that  type  of  modem  science  which 
finds  nothing  beyond  physical  phenomena,  which  esti- 
mates the  material  universe  as  a  closed  sphere  and  therefore 
readily  appropriates  the  materialistic,  atheistic,  or  pan- 
theistic, and  sometimes  the  deistic  world- view,  has  greatly 
furthered  this  tendency  of  thought  and  many  other 
departments  of  learning  have  fallen  into  Hne.  The  older 
forms  of  deism,  pantheism,  and  materialism  have  indeed 


50  THE   MODERN    PULPIT 

been  fought  down  or  lived  down.  Science  has  found  a 
finer  and  a  more  dehcate  mechanism  in  the  universe 
than  the  old  view  of  the  world  ever  knew,  and  the  myste- 
rious energy  that  pervades  it  is  subhmated  into  a  something 
that  cannot  be  defined  wholly  in  terms  of  matter  or  in 
terms  of  blind  force.  Men  are  not  wiUing  to  be  called 
materialists  of  the  old-fashioned  sort,  nor  are  they  quite 
willing  to  confound  the  subtle  energy  that  is  behind  the 
universe  with  the  universe  itself.  And  neither  theology, 
nor  philosophy,  nor  science,  in  so  far  as  these  latter  find 
God  at  all,  wholly  isolate  him  from  the  universe,  nor  do 
they  completely  identify  Him  with  it. 

But  it  is  perfectly  clear  that  men's  conception  of  what 
calls  itself  the  supernatural  has  undergone  a  good  deal 
of  change,  and  has  left  behind  as  an  inheritance  for  our 
age  a  strong  naturahstic  bias.  No  thinking  man  in  our 
day  believes  as  lavishly  in  supernatural  reality  as  the  men 
of  former  ages.  We  all  beheve  more  cautiously  and 
discriminatingly.  As  by  a  kind  of  mental,  not  to  say 
ethical  and  aesthetic,  habit,  we  are  impatient  of  extra 
belief. 

The  problem  of  religion,  in  so  far  as  it  legitimately 
adjusts  itself  to  the  demands  of  science,  is  how  to  adjust 
the  natural  to  the  supernatural.  The  adjustment  in  our 
day  has  been  made,  not  in  the  old  way,  by  breaking  down 
or  suspending  the  order  of  the  one,  or  by  denying  the 
reality  of  the  other,  or  by  effecting  an  unnatural  or  artificial 
combination  of  or  compromise  between  them,  but  by 
bringing  them  into  vital  relations  as  parts  of  one  great 
whole.  The  outcome  of  all  this  has  been  that  the  sphere 
of  nature  has  won  new  territory. 

Like  all  great  movements  of  human  thought,  this  has 
its  bad  side.  A  large  and  respectable  portion  of  the 
educated  community  has  lost  faith  in  supernatural  rehgion. 
It  is  untouched,  or  at  least  it  has  ceased  to  be  strongly 
influenced,  by  the  supernatural  Christianity  of  the  church. 


INFLUENCES   OF   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY     51 

Men  regard  themselves  as  awakening  from  faith  in  the 
supernatural  as  from  an  empty  dream,  or  from  the  illu- 
sions of  unreality.  They  are  illumined ;  they  are  cleared 
up ;  they  live  in  a  disillusioned  world.  The  only  way  to 
save  Christianity  at  all  is  to  throw  the  supernatural 
overboard.  This  assumption  of  the  unreality  of  the 
supernatural  men  carry  into  their  estimate  of  the  historic 
Christ.  Christianity  is  explicable  only  in  terms  of  nature. 
If  you  scratch  a  naturahst  of  this  type,  you  find  a  pantheist. 
This  involves  a  small  world-\aew,  and  one  not  correspondent 
to  facts,  so  small  and  unreal,  in  fact,  that  it  bears  the  marks 
of  falseness,  and  it  tends  to  lower  the  ideals  of  hfe.  As 
men  lose  hold  of  reahties  which  can  only  be  defined  as 
supernatural,  whatever  the  character  of  the  definition,  the 
standards  of  hfe  are  lowered  not  suddenly  but  gradually. 
"Whenever,"  says  Cairns,  "Christianity  has  survived 
the  flood  of  scepticism,  and  has  flourished  anew,  its  prog- 
ress has  been  in  direct  proportion  to  its  clear  reassertion 
of  its  supernatural  character."  ^ 

By  detaching  themselves  from  the  best  half  of  life, 
and  that  the  most  truly  real,  men  are  mutilating  their 
higher  natures  and  stifling  the  outcry  of  their  deepest 
wants.  The  intellect  is  cultivated  at  cost  of  feeling  and 
sentiment ;  supreme  stress  is  laid  upon  an  education  and 
training  that  shall  fit  one  for  a  material  existence.  Thus 
religion  is  discredited  and  the  rehgious  nature  atrophied. 
"One  world  at  a  time,"  is  the  watchword  of  materiaHstic 
delusion,  which  means  no  world  at  all  but  the  world  we 
see.  The  world  present  and  visible  is  the  only  world  in 
fact,  that  vast  multitudes  know  or  care  for.  God  is 
ruled  out  of  His  world.  "The  life  that  now  is"  is  a  com- 
plex whole  within  itself,  and  rehgion  is  of  value  at  best 
only  as  an  ethical  system.  All  this  is  carried  down  into 
the  behefs  and  into  the  lives  of  those  who  are  wholly  ab- 
sorbed in  material  pursuits,  and  into  the  lives  of  those  still 

•  "  Unbelief  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,"  Ch.  VI,  279  ff. 


52  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

farther  down  who  are  struggling  with  the  bewildering 
contradictions  and  the  crushing  burdens  and  intolerable 
sufferings  of  existence,  lost  to  the  future  hfe,  lost  to  a  higher 
and  hoher  and  more  truly  real  world,  lost  to  God,  and  so 
lost  to  self,  caring  only  for  "the  life  that  now  is,"  but  lost  to 
the  best  of  it,  and  failing  to  win  any  smallest  pittance  even 
of  its  transient  good.  And  here  naturahsm  becomes  a 
vulgar  materiahsm  and  animalism,  wild  and  grotesque, 
profane  and  ungodly.  A  portentous  amount  of  this  barbar- 
ism has  intrenched  itself  in  modem  life,  industrial,  —  com- 
mercial and  pohtical.  Not  infrequently  it  emerges  under 
disguises,  but  here  it  is  in  its  essence  even  in  the  refinements 
of  secular  culture.  But  wherever  found,  and  in  whatever 
guise,  it  is  an  element  of  barbarism. 

We  hve  in  an  age  of  colossal  worldliness — of  material- 
istic show  and  force  and  enterprise.  Money,  or  rather 
the  insane  greed  for  it,  is  a  dominating  and  corrupting 
and  degrading  power,  especially  in  the  nation  of  unbridled 
commercial  ambition.  The  individual  lessens  and  propor- 
tionately the  forces  of  high  intelligence  and  morality.  Men 
in  commercial  life  combine  to  achieve  their  ends  of  selfish 
greed  by  a  species  of  low  cunning  and  often  of  brute 
force ;  and  countercombination  is  the  result,  and  we  find 
ourselves  in  the  hands  of  a  commercial  and  industrial 
democracy  that  has  become  an  outrageous  tyranny  which 
threatens  a  reign  of  terror.  Whatever  other  agencies  or 
influences  may  be  at  work  in  the  extreme  socialistic 
tendencies  that  manifest  themselves  in  almost  all  depart- 
ments of  associate  life,  they  are  ultimately  naturalistic, 
or,  more  exactly,  materiahstic,  in  their  source.  They  have 
their  origin  in  the  fierce  and  greedy  fight  for  material 
existence. 

We  are  returning  to  a  reign  of  unintelligent  and  im- 
moral force,  or  are  moving  towards  that  goal.  The  grand 
ideas  of  humanity  and  of  the  sacredness  of  the  individual 
man  and  of  individual  rights,  and  of  regard  for  the  unblessed 


INFLUENCES   OF   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY     53 

section  of  the  race,  which  were  dominating  conceptions 
and  inspirations  in  the  first  part  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
in  the  latter  half  seemed  to  have  lost  their  inspiring  power. 
The  brute  element  in  man,  and  notably  in  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  race,  is  asserting  itself.  Commercial  greed,  backed 
by  political  jingoism  and  journalistic  sensationaHsm, 
shows  its  contempt  for  inferior  races;  its  contempt  for 
those  conceptions  of  human  rights  in  which  the  American 
nation  was  bom,  and  under  the  hypocritical  guise  of 
philanthropy  exploits  the  islands  of  the  sea  and  crushes 
the  aspirations  of  their  populations.  All  this  involves  a 
strange  reaction  from  the  higher  ideals  of  life  and  from 
that  larger  and  nobler  view  of  the  world  and  of  human 
existence  that  is  given  in  Christianity,  and  from  that 
high  moral  and  humanistic  culture  that  is  quite  distinctly 
characteristic  of  the  nineteenth  century.  With  all  its 
vastly  beneficent  influence  upon  human  life,  which  no 
man  can  question  or  should  wish  to  question,  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  devotion  to  science  in  a  one-sided  and 
exclusive  manner  is  dehumanizing.  The  loss  of  person- 
ahty  is  a  fatal  loss  in  any  sphere  of  education.  Modem 
science  has  lost  its  grip  of  personaHty.  It  Uves  in  an 
impersonal  universe.  Commerce  with  such  a  universe 
cannot  nourish  all  the  choicest  experiences  —  all  the 
choicest  aspirations  and  longings  and  strivings — of  the 
human  soul.  And  in  so  far  as  it  withdraws  the  student 
from  the  humanities,  it  fails  to  nurture  and  develop 
the  spiritual  nature,  the  great  realities  of  the  inner  life 
become  unreal,  and  Darwin's  "atrophy"  is  one  of  the 
consequences.  And  when  we  pass  from  the  thoughtful 
scientist  to  the  masses  of  men,  who  without  his  intellectual 
resources  and  defences  are  wiUing  to  accept  his  material- 
istic conception  of  Ufe  and  carry  it  out  into  the  brute 
conflicts  of  commerce  and  industry,  we  have  the  natural- 
istic curse  in  its  worst  and  most  intensified  forms. 

To  what  extent  and  in  what  way  the  pulpit  of  our 


54 


THE   MODERN   PULPIT 


age  may  have  been  influenced  by  this  naturaUstic  tendency 
in  its  worst  aspect,  it  may  be  difficult  to  say.  That  it 
has  ever  become  consciously  subservient  to  its  most  de- 
grading forms  no  one  probably  will  be  disposed  to  affirm. 
But  that  it  is  in  danger  of  being  partially  muzzled  by  the 
excessive  commerciahsm  of  the  age  is  something  to  be 
feared,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  task  of  resisting 
it  and  of  attempting  to  rescue  men  from  its  mahgn  influ- 
ences is  a  most  serious  one. 

But  there  is  a  better  side.  The  left  has  its  right.  Na- 
ture has  its  claims.  In  large  measure  they  are  new  claims. 
The  necessary  concessions  to  her  have  been  made.  The 
old  supematuralism  has  proved  to  be  untenable.  There 
are  larger  and  more  correct  conceptions  of  the  relations  of 
God  to  nature  as  involved  in  our  conception  of  Him  as  the 
world-ground.  And  supematurahsm  stands  on  a  firmer, 
because  a  more  reasonable,  and,  if  the  expression  may  be 
used,  a  more  truly  natural,  basis.  A  more  reasonable  con- 
ception of  the  relation  of  God  to  the  world  is  the  philo- 
sophical, theological,  and  religious  victory  of  the  thought 
of  the  past  century,  and  to  this  victory  physical  science  has 
made  its  direct  or  indirect  and  in  either  case  immense 
contributions. 

A  more  reasonable  conception  of  the  supernatural 
has  influenced  our  apologetics.  It  has  taken  connection 
with  the  modem  doctrine  of  evolution  and  has  affected 
our  cosmology.  By  enlarging  our  conception  of  the 
vastness  of  the  universe,  science  has  enlarged  our  con- 
ception of  the  character  of  God  and  of  his  relation  to 
the  universe,  and  by  modifying  our  conception  of  the 
method  of  the  universe,  it  has  modified  our  conception 
of  the  mode  of  its  origin  and  the  processes  of  its  develop- 
ment. It  affects  our  conception  of  miracles  and  our 
defence  of  them.  Miracles  take  their  place,  not  indeed 
in  the  order  of  natural  causation,  as  if  from  its  own 
inherent  force  as  mechanism  it  were  able   to   produce 


INFLUENCES   OF   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY     55 

them,  but  in  a  world  that  is  easily  adjusted  to  them, 
because  it  is  responsive  to  the  world  of  spirit.  Under  the 
apphcation  of  historical  and  critical  methods  of  investiga- 
tion the  number  of  Bibhcal  miracles  has  been  reduced. 
We  justify  ourselves  in  making  critical  discriminations 
between  the  Biblical  narratives  of  the  miracles.  The 
tendency  to  minimize,  or  at  least  to  reduce  the  volume 
of  the  miraculous,  even  among  so-called  evangelical 
thinkers,  is  a  somewhat  notable  thing,  as  if  sometimes 
the  problem  were  to  determine  how  little  we  may  believe 
in  miracles  and  get  on  without  denying  historic  Chris- 
tianity. Even  supematurahsts,  hke  the  saintly  Neander, 
whose  influence,  hke  that  of  all  modem  mediators  in 
theology,  has  been  strong  in  the  interest  of  a  new  and  better 
type  of  supematurahsm,  have  shown  this  tendency  to 
reduce  the  number  of  the  Bibhcal  miracles  as  far  as  pos- 
sible. It  is  as  if  the  problem  were  to  hmit  our  faith, 
not  indeed  in  the  reahty,  but  in  the  scope  of  super- 
natural activities,  and  to  hold  as  closely  as  possible  to 
the  common  order  of  the  world. 

Reverent  evangehcal  critics  regard  the  miracles  of  the 
Old  Testament  as  standing  on  hardly  the  same  basis 
of  historic  evidence  as  those  of  the  New  Testament. 
Moreover,  we  accept  the  New  Testam.ent  record  of  miracles 
largely  because  we  accept  Christ.  They  may  support 
him,  but  he  quite  as  effectually  supports  them.  Men's 
estimate  of  the  evidential  value  of  miracles  has  been 
modified.  It  is  no  longer  possible  to  accept  Christianity 
chiefly  upon  the  basis  of  a  behcf  in  miracles.  But  it  is 
not  unreasonable  to  beheve  in  miracles  upon  the  basis 
of  an  intelligent  behef  in  Christianity.  This  changed 
point  of  view,  which  is  the  result  of  the  transition  from  an 
objective  to  a  subjective  world  of  thought,  is  a  mark  of  dis- 
tinction between  the  faith  of  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth 
centuries.  The  influence  of  this  naturahstic  tendency 
in   its    better    aspect    is    seen    in   modem    Christology. 


56  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

What  is  historic  and  human  and  natural  in  the  person  and 
work  of  Christ  is  put  in  the  foreground.  It  has  touched 
our  anthropology.  It  has  affected  our  conception  of 
revelation,  yielding  a  more  reasonable,  because  a  more 
real,  conception  of  the  Bible  as  a  historic  record  of  God's 
self-disclosure  in  the  redemption  of  the  human  race. 
It  is  in  hne  with  larger  and  juster  conceptions  of  the  king- 
dom of  God,  and  involves  more  reasonable  views  of  the 
method  of  its  development  as  the  kingdom  of  redemption 
and  of  its  final  consummation,  and  in  this  way  it  is  in  hne 
with  a  larger  confidence  in  the  possibiHties  of  human  nature 
and  with  our  modem  philanthropic  enterprise.  All  this 
surely  involves  a  more  reasonable  habit  of  mind  and 
yields  a  more  defensible  theology,  and  the  preacher  who 
has  felt  the  power  of  this  great  movement  and  has  adjusted 
his  preaching  to  it  is  the  one  who  most  truly  represents 
his  age. 

I  venture  still  further  to  suggest  that  modem  agnosti- 
cism, both  on  its  good  and  on  its  bad  side,  is  in  some  large 
measure  a  product  of  that  naturahstic  habit  of  mind  that 
physical  science  has  fostered.  Doubtless  a  changed 
philosophic  as  well  as  scientific  habit  of  mind  is  involved 
in  the  genesis  of  agnosticism.  A  new  psychical  as  well  as 
physical  world  has  been  opened  to  view,  and  in  the  pro- 
cesses of  investigation  new  questions  are  raised.  Old 
opinions  are  reversed  and  multitudes  of  problems  are 
held  in  suspense.  But  just  here  it  is  the  scientific  genesis 
of  agnosticism  that  holds  our  attention.  Agnosticism 
is  suspense  of  mental  action  or  of  mental  judgment  in 
the  domain  of  rehgion.  Men  stop  thinking  before  they 
reach  ultimate  results.  There  is  a  world  of  open  questions 
in  the  rehgion  of  our  day.  The  dogmatic  method  settles 
nothing.  All  men  who  think  at  all  share  in  the  general 
uncertainty.  It  is  a  common  conviction,  and  it  is  a  natural 
and  just  as  well  as  an  honest  one,  that  religion  has  had  too 
many  unverified  assumptions,  that  from  hmited  data  it 


INFLUENCES   OF   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY     57 

has  indulged  in  too  large  generalizations,  that  upon  an 
inadequate  foundation  it  has  speculated  and  theorized  too 
much.  The  result  is  that  men  who  hold  their  religious 
faith  at  all  find  themselves  driven  back  upon  a  few  bottom 
realities  upon  which  they  concentrate  and  to  which  they 
cling.  Thus  the  sphere  of  rehgious  knowledge  is  limited 
rather  than  widened.  Men  are  after  facts  and  they  are  in- 
clined to  stay  with  the  facts,  without  pushing  out  as  ven- 
turesomely as  formerly  into  the  realm  of  theor}'.  They  are 
often  at  a  loss  what  to  do  wdth  their  facts  after  they  have 
captured  them,  hence  the  import  of  reliable  and  verifiable 
facts  in  the  domain  of  rehgion  fails  of  adequate  comprehen- 
sion and  interpretation.  This  agnostic  tendency  can  hardly 
be  a  legitimate  product  of  the  scientific  habit  of  mind  as 
such,  for  the  scientific  habit  of  mind  is  not  hostile  to  theory 
and  thus  not  hostile  to  speculation.  In  fact,  scientific 
investigators  and  speculators  find  it  impossible  to  remain 
agnostic.  That  is,  they  must  continue  to  think.  They 
cannot  wholly  suspend  judgment  with  respect  to  the 
import  of  their  facts.  They  push  out  into  affirmation. 
There  is,  after  all,  a  good  deal  of  guessing  and  a  good  deal 
of  dogmatism  in  science.  But  when  scientists  come  over 
into  the  domain  of  rehgion,  they  insist  upon  remaining 
agnostic;  that  is,  they  cease  to  think.  The  patronizing 
tone  of  agnosticism  in  our  day  is  notable.  Does  it  mean 
that  this  so-called  ignorance  of  the  fundamental  reahties 
of  the  universe  is  an  afTectation  and  that  its  patronage 
is  arrogance  veiling  itself  under  the  guise  of  humihty? 
But  the  point  in  hand  is,  that  the  agnostic  tendency  is 
to  a  considerable  extent  the  product  of  that  naturahstic 
habit  of  mind  which  affects  facts  that  belong  to  the  world 
of  sense,  for  these  are  the  facts  that  have  the  greatest 
weight  and  significance.  As  by  a  kind  of  instinct  it 
shuns  the  world  of  metaphysics  and  has  no  hold  of  the 
world  of  spirit.  It  has  no  firm,  consistent  theory  about 
this   reahn.     This  habit  of  mind    has  intrenched   itself 


58  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

in  theology,  influencing  it  both  favorably  and  unfavorably, 
and  this  influence  reaches  the  pulpit.  For  instance, 
the  nonspeculative  habit  in  theology  has  gained  ground. 
This  is  not  without  good  results.  But  in  its  worst  form 
it  assumes  that  the  mind  is  shut  within  the  hmited  sphere 
of  the  world  of  sense,  and  that  nothing  can  be  known  out- 
side it,  or  outside  what  is  immediately  connected  with  it. 
With  the  hmitation  of  the  speculative  activities  even 
rationahsm  loses  ground,  for  rationahsm  aflEirms  the  com- 
petency and  supremacy  of  reason  in  reaching  the  reahn 
of  affirmation  in  religion.  There  is  no  easy  behef  in 
circles  once  known  as  rationahstic  in  the  sufficiency  and 
•  supremacy  of  reason.  In  fact,  the  agnostic  tendency  in  its 
extreme  form  is  the  tendency  to  underestimate,  even  deny, 
the  competency  of  the  soul  in  the  totality  of  its  powers 
with  respect  to  the  formation  of  rehable  judgments  upon 
what  Ues  beyond  the  border  of  the  visible  universe.  In 
so  far  as  the  age  is  agnostic,  in  this  extreme  sense  it  is 
unreligious,  for  it  is  the  very  inner  necessity  of  rehgion 
to  make  affirmation  with  respect  to  invisible  and  ideal 
reality.  The  Christian  pulpit  has  been  obhged  to  take 
account  of  all  this,  appropriating  what  is  of  value  in  it, 
but  it  is  also  obhged  to  counterwork  it. 

Pessimism  is  another  product  of  this  naturalistic  habit 
of  mind.  For  pessimism  is  a  habit  of  mind  as  well  as  of 
feehng.  It  is  a  philosophy  as  well  as  an  animus.  It 
undertakes  to  justify  itself  in  terms  of  reason  for  its  habitual 
distrust  of  moral  good  and  for  its  failure  to  find  an  ideal 
world.  Good  as  the  source  and  goal  of  all  things  it  does 
not  know,  and  it  finds  no  moral  order  in  the  world  ;  hence  it 
is  fatalistic.  The  world  is  an  insoluble  enigma.  It  is  an 
"  unintelHgible  world,"  a  vast  complex  of  bhnd  forces 
without  moral  purpose  or  order.  Under  the  influence  of 
this  fatalistic  philosophy,  the  sense  of  sin  and  of  personal 
accountabihty  is  diminishing.  Such  a  conception  of  life 
readily  suggests  the  question  whether  it  "is  worth  living." 


INFLUENCES   OF   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY     59 

Men  are  discouraged  with  it,  and  put  a  low  estimate 
upon  it  because  they  have  lost  the  key  to  its  significance. 
No  one  knows  modern  hfe  who  does  not  detect  this  spirit 
lurking  in  widely  different  classes  of  society.  Nor  is  it 
difficult  to  detect  its  source.  It  is  a  product  of  modem 
secularism.  It  is  only  ideal  reahty  that  can  save  this 
empirical  existence.  The  age  that  fails  to  lift  its  eyes  to 
the  hills  will  fail  of  help.  It  is  a  discouraging  aspect  of 
our  modem  world  —  this  cynical  indifference  about 
hfe;  the  tone  of  dissatisfaction  with  it;  the  low  estimate 
of  it  —  which  we  detect  in  increasing  numbers  in  widely 
different  circles,  especially  in  our  larger  metropohtan^ 
communities;  the  tone  of  hopelessness  and  of  reckless 
defiance  that  marks  the  reaction  of  the  industrial  classes 
against  the  burdens  and  barriers  of  life  is  bodeful,  and 
the  occasion  for  it  in  the  accursed  greed  of  the  comfortable 
lordlings  of  the  material  world  is  more  bodeful  still. 
The  hope  of  the  future  hfe  has  been  quenched  in  the 
breasts  of  myriads  of  God's  poor,  who  were  once  anchored 
to  a  better  world,  and  the  hfe  that  now  is  has  nothing  for 
them  in  this  hopeless  stmggle  for  existence.  There  is 
a  tremendous  strain  upon  human  hfe.  It  is  in  a  state 
of  ferment.  It  is  a  time  of  keen  intellectual  excitement, 
of  strong  passions,  of  feverish  unrest,  of  profound  dis- 
satisfaction. The  modem  world  is  hving  wildly  and  reck- 
lessly. It  is  the  democratic  age,  the  sociahstic  age,  the 
age  of  stupendous  worldhness.  We  are  hving  upon  the 
crest  of  that  wave  of  revolution  in  pohtical,  social,  indus- 
trial, intellectual,  moral,  and  religious  hfe  that  emerged 
in  the  eighteenth  centur}'.  Those  conceptions  of  the  world 
and  of  hfe,  of  man,  of  society,  of  the  relations  of  men, 
that  then  came  to  the  surface  are  now  working  themselves 
out  in  concrete  reahty.  What  began  in  thought  ends 
with  the  passions.  That  the  naturahstic  conceptions 
of  hfe,  which  have  been  furthered  by  the  development 
of  modem   science,  have   been  tributary  in  some   large 


6o  THE   MODERN    PULPIT 

measure  to  these  conditions  of  modem  society  is  clear 
enough  to  him  who  sees  aright.  That  all  this  variously 
affects  the  work  of  the  modern  pulpit,  modifying  it,  inten- 
sifying it,  tempting  it  into  acquiescence  or  stimulating 
it  into  revolt,  is  but  saying  that  the  preacher  is  human 
and  cannot  detach  himself  from  the  humanity  of  his  age. 
It  is  one  of  the  grotesque  humors  of  this  modern  pes- 
simistic spirit  that  the  men  of  commerce  and  of  politics 
who  have  lost  their  grip  of  the  moral  order  of  the  world 
and  treat  it  with  undisguised  contempt  should  charge 
the  preacher,  who  holds  firmly  to  the  divine  order  and 
reacts  against  their  dishonor  of  it,  with  being  a  pessimist. 
II.  The  developments  of  modern  philosophy  furnish  a 
second  prominent  influence  in  modern  thought  and  life 
that  have  powerfully  affected  the  work  of  the  Christian 
pulpit.  For  the  sphere  of  so-called  secular  Hfe,  the  devel- 
opments of  physical  science  are  perhaps  of  all  others 
most  significant,  although  they  are  not  without  vast 
significance,  as  already  noted,  for  the  thought  and  Hfe 
of  the  church.  But  for  the  sphere  of  rehgion  the  most 
fundamental,  pervasive,  and  productive  influences  are 
found  in  the  development  of  modern  philosophy.  Phi- 
losophy has  always  made  itself  felt  directly  or  indirectly 
in  the  pulpit,  because  it  has  always  influenced  the  theology 
of  the  church.  This  is  especially  true  in  many  respects  of 
modern  philosophy,  particularly  as  related  to  its  theory 
of  knowledge.  It  has  had  its  influence  not  only  upon  the 
object  and  method  of  preaching,  but  especially  upon  its 
subject-matter.  The  results  of  the  philosophic  movement 
in  Great  Britain,  France,  and  Germany  upon  the  preach- 
ing of  the  eighteenth  century  we  have  already  seen.  The 
effect,  whether  good  or  bad,  and  it  was  both,  of  those 
earUer  philosophical  speculations  was  manifest  in  the 
introduction  into  preaching  of  a  more  distinctively  rational 
type  of  subject-matter,  a  more  daring  speculative  spirit, 
and  on  the  whole  a  more  orderly  structural  form.     It 


INFLUENCES  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  6 1 

was  a  very  direct  influence  and  affected  especially  the 
apologetics  of  the  pulpit. 

Those  earlier  philosophic  movements  have  been  sub- 
jected to  a  great  variety  of  modifying  agencies,  and  the 
effect  of  modem  philosophic  thought  upon  the  pulpit 
has  been  rather  more  indirect.  The  most  powerful 
philosophic  influence  upon  the  preaching  of  our  day  is 
that  of  Kant,  and  following  Kant,  that  of  Hegel.  Mod- 
ern philosophy  begins  with  Kant.  It  has  revolutionized 
German  theology.  It  has  modified  the  theology  of  entire 
Protestant  Christendom,  and  its  influence  can  be  detected 
in  all  types  of  preaching  that  are  truly  modem.  It  is 
an  influence  that  is  still  at  work  and  will  be  for  ages  to 
come.  In  time  Kant  belongs  to  the  eighteenth  century, 
the  centenary  of  his  death  having  recently  occurred, 
but  in  influence  he  belongs  to  the  nineteenth  century. 

The  earhest  form  of  the  Kantian  influence  upon  preach- 
ing was  not  salutary,  nor  has  its  later  influence  been  al- 
together beneficial.  Kant  subordinated  rehgion  to  morahty, 
or  rather  substituted  morahty  for  rehgion,  recognizing 
nothing  that  calls  itself  rehgion  as  having  any  vaUd 
claim  upon  man  unless  found  strictly  within  the  Umits 
of  the  moral  reason.  He  also  introduced  an  element  of 
scepticism  into  philosophic  thinking,  and  in  the  sphere 
of  philosophy  was  the  father  of  modem  agnosticism. 
And  it  is  at  just  this  point  that  modern  philosophy  joins 
hands  with  modem  science  in  developing  the  agnostic 
spirit.  Moreover,  Kant  accommodated  Christianity  to 
Ms  philosophy  and  ethics  and  so  perverted  and  caricatured 
it,  and  in  this  the  Kantian  preachers  of  the  earher  period 
followed  him,  introducing  a  new  type  of  rationahsm  into 
their  preaching  and  eviscerating  their  teachings  of  what 
was  distinctively  Christian.  Later  preachers  also  who 
adopted  the  Kantian  agnosticism  have  shown  the  same 
accommodating  tendency  and  have  perverted  Christianity. 
This  type  of    preaching   that   aimed    supremely    at   the 


62  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

exposition  of  Christianity  according  to  Kant  also  lacked 
in  proper  homiletic  aim,  homiletic  order,  and  literary 
form. 

But  the  more  indirect  later  influence  of  Kant  has  been 
much  more  salutary.  The  most  beneficent  of  all  philo- 
sophic influences  upon  the  preaching  of  the  nineteenth 
century  was  precisely  that  of  Kant  in  modifying  the  theory 
of  religious  knowledge,  and  this  is  perhaps  the  greatest 
and  most  permanent  contribution  to  theology  of  modern 
philosophy.  Under  its  influence  great  changes  have  been 
wrought  in  men's  conceptions  of  Christianity  and  in  the 
evidences  by  which  it  is  vindicated.  In  the  eighteenth 
century,  as  we  have  seen,  the  evidences  for  Christianity, 
in  so  far  as  it  was  differentiated  from  what  called  itself 
natural  religion,  that  is,  the  evidences  for  Christianity 
as  a  positive  religion  or  the  religion  of  revelation,  were 
in  the  main  of  an  external  and  inferential  character.  In 
the  transition  to  the  nineteenth  century  we  pass  from  the 
external  to  the  internal,  and  from  the  inferential  to  the 
more  immediate  evidences.  Kant  undertook  to  show  that 
the  speculative  reason  never  gets  us  beyond  the  realm  of 
subjective  thought,  or  the  realm  of  phenomena  with  which 
subjective  thought  deals,  and  consequently  furnishes  no 
evidence  of  the  objective  validity  of  its  speculative  con- 
ceptions. Of  itself  it  can  secure  no  solid  basis  of  assur- 
ance that  the  great  realities  with  which  religion  concerns 
itself  —  God,  virtue,  and  immortality  —  are  anything 
more  than  subjective  conceptions,  pure  creations  of  the 
speculative  reason.  But  he  found  evidence  for  these 
rehgious  realities,  which  he  identified  with  morality, 
in  the  practical  or  moral  reason.  A  new  foundation 
was  thus  laid  for  the  appUcation  of  the  moral  argument 
in  the  defence  of  religion.  By  showing  the  inadequacy 
in  the  sphere  of  rehgion  of  the  speculative  reason  of  which 
men  in  their  pride  of  intellect  had  boasted,  by  showing 
its  incapacity  to  grapple  successfully  v^th  its  problems, 


INFLUENCES   OF   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY     63 

the  old  type  of  deistic  rationalism  that  was  prevalent 
in  the  eighteenth  century  was  dislodged.  Moreover, 
the  insufficiency  of  the  merely  external  evidences  of  Chris- 
tianity became  the  more  apparent,  and  thus  Kant  cut 
under  the  orthodoxy  as  well  as  rationahsm  of  his  day. 
All  this  doubtless  involved  Kant  in  a  new  species  of  ration- 
ahsm, for  it  involved  the  denial  of  the  reahty  of  any 
objective  revelation  as  a  basis  of  evidence  for  rehgious 
truth.  Rehgion  is  found  wholly  within  the  Umits  of  sub- 
jective moral  experience  and  is  thus  identified  with  moral- 
ity. Thus  Kantianism  has  developed  in  two  directions, 
in  the  direction  of  rationaUstic  scepticism  and  in  that  of  a 
deeper  rehgious  faith.  On  the  positive  side  it  has  secured 
new  emphasis  for  the  moral  evidences  of  Christianity  and 
has  prepared  the  way  for  a  better,  a  more  complete, 
and  a  more  confident  recognition  of  the  evidential  value 
of  other  elements  of  subjective  experience,  the  evidential 
value  namely  of  all  the  native  moral  and  rehgious  instincts, 
impulses,  -and  intuitions  of  the  soul  in  their  commerce  with 
the  reahn  of  religion.  There  follows  a  fuller  recognition 
of  what  calls  itself  in  our  day  the  rehgious  consciousness 
as  furnishing  in  its  experiences  a  new  basis  of  rehgious 
knowledge.  Kant's  supreme  value  is  not  in  his  scepticism 
with  respect  to  the  vahdating  authority  of  the  speculative 
reason,  although  in  the  inadequacy  of  human  reason  this 
has  been  of  indirect  value  in  accentuating  the  importance 
of  objective  revelation,  but  rather  in  his  robust  faith  in 
the  practical  or  moral  reason.  Thus  Kantianism  is  of 
supreme  significance  in  the  moral  realm.  It  directs 
attention  anew  to  the  moral  elements  in  Christianity, 
and  to  the  importance  of  the  moral  evidences  in  its  defence. 
Kant's  ethics  has  a  touching  point  vidth  the  Christian 
teaching  of  disinterested  benevolence  and  deals  an  effective 
blow  at  all  forms  of  selfish  morahty. 

Kant  prepares  the  way  for  Hamann  and  Jacobi  with 
their  faith  pliilosophy  or  the  philosophy  of  immediate 


64  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

spiritual  intuition.  Religious  knowledge  is  a  knowledge 
that  is  based  on  faith,  a  faith  which  is  acceptance  of  the 
immediate  testimony  of  the  religious  consciousness.  He 
prepares  the  way  for  Schleiermacher  with  his  religion  of 
spiritual  feeling  and  intuition,  perhaps  the  most  powerful 
influence  in  the  realm  of  Christian  theology  during  the  last 
century.  He  prepared  the  way  for  Herder,  who  laid  stress 
upon  the  aesthetic  element  in  rehgion,  and  brought  the 
literary  spirit  into  relation  with  the  philosophic  spirit  in 
the  interpretation  of  historic  Christianity.  He  prepared 
the  way  for  neo-Kantians  like  Ritschl  and  Kaftan,  who  are 
followers  of  Schleiermacher  as  well  as  of  Kant,  and  whose 
conceptions  of  the  basis  of  rehgious  experience  are  much 
broader  than  those  of  Kant,  it  being  an  emotional  and 
aesthetic  and  spiritual  as  well  as  ethical  experience.  Thus 
the  new  rationahsm  of  the  neo-Kantian  school,  which 
discards  all  metaphysical  defences  for  Christianity  and 
rests  its  evidence  upon  subjective  Christian  experience, 
almost  approaches  the  position  of  Christian  evangeli- 
calism and  is  in  some  sort  and  measure  in  alliance  with  it. 
This  return  to  subjective  reUgion  which  Kant  has  directly 
and  indirectly  so  powerfully  promoted  has  had  a  strong 
influence  not  only  upon  the  subject-matter  of  Christian 
preaching,  and  especially  upon  its  apologetic  quality, 
but  upon  its  tone,  aim,  and  even  its  form.  Because  of  it, 
preaching  is  more  edifying  and  persuasive. 

Kant  prepared  the  way  also  for  Hegel,  who  restored 
in  new  form  the  subjective  rational  element  in  rehgion, 
thus  attempting  to  correct  the  defects  of  Kant  on  the 
speculative  side.  The  influence  of  Hegel  upon  the  Chris- 
tian pulpit  is  not  so  manifest  nor  so  permanent  perhaps  as 
that  of  Kant,  but  it  is  real  and  powerful.  Rehgion  is 
with  Hegel  a  matter  of  rational  experience  as  with  Kant 
of  moral,  with  Schleiermacher  of  spiritual,  and  with  Herder 
of  aesthetic,  experience.  God  as  the  absolute  is  known 
in   consciousness   as   an   object   of   immediate    thought. 


INFLUENCES   OF  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY     6$ 

He  takes  us  out  also  into  the  broad  domain  of  history 
and  interprets  Christianity  historically  as  well  as  specu- 
latively. Christianity  is  the  historic  evolution  of  the  funda- 
mental conceptions  of  reason.  It  interprets  the  eternal 
truths  of  reason.  But  it  interprets  them  in  historic  forms 
that  speak  to  the  imagination.  Philosophy  deals  with 
pure  thought  and  reason  is  its  organ.  Religion  deals 
with  representative  thought  and  imagination  is  its  organ. 
The  historic  forms  in  which  rehgion  appears  are  not  in 
themselves  the  eternal  truths  of  reason,  but  they  stand 
for,  represent,  and  mediate  them.  It  is  one  of  the  merits 
of  Hegelianism  that  it  seeks  in  terms  of  rational  thought 
to  get  at  the  inner  truth  of  those  rehgious  phenomena 
that  have  appeared  historically  in  forms  of  the  imagination. 
All  of  these  and  other  philosophic  thinkers  contempora- 
neous with  and  subsequent  to  Kant  who  sought  anew  to 
domesticate  rehgion  in  the  inner  Hfe  as  a  form  of  sub- 
jective experience  have  exerted  a  powerful  influence, 
especially  upon  the  more  prominent  and  thoughtful  rep- 
resentatives of  the  modern  pulpit.  But  the  influence  has 
reached  them  largely  through  the  successors  of  these  men 
of  creative  genius,  who  have  interpreted  and  measurably 
modified  their  views,  and  not  infrequently  the  influence  has 
reached  them  through  modern  literature,  which  has  inter- 
preted in  forms  of  imaginative  representation  their  philo- 
sophic conceptions.  As  in  the  case  of  Kant  it  has  not  been 
a  wholly  beneficent  influence,  although  in  the  long  run  the 
better  influence  has  preponderated.  Schleiermacher  has 
reached  the  pulpit  more  effectively  and  beneficently  through 
his  disciples,  who  have  corrected  and  modified  his  defective 
conceptions  of  rehgion  and  theology.  There  were  promi- 
nent preachers  hke  Claus  Harms,  whom  Schleiermacher  by 
his  "Discourses"  awakened  to  a  new  intellectual  and 
rehgious  hfe.  But  even  he  felt  obliged  to  say,  "He  that 
begat  me  had  no  bread  for  me."  But  through  such  men 
as  Neander  and  Ullman  and  Tholuck  and  JuHus  Miiller 


66  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

his  influence,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say,  has  reached  the 
most  intelhgent  preachers  in  all  the  communions  of  Prot- 
estant Christendom.  In  so  far  as  Herder's  rationahsm 
fostered  a  defective  faith  in  the  reahty  of  objective  revela- 
tion it  became  an  unfavorable  influence.  But  of  the  value 
of  his  contribution  to  a  higher  aesthetic  and  rehgious  esti- 
mate of  the  Bible  there  can  be  no  doubt,  and  as  Httle  doubt 
of  the  extent  of  his  indirect  influence  upon  the  most  culti- 
vated preachers  of  our  day. 

Hegel's  influence  also  has  been  in  two  directions.  No 
one  has  set  forth  with  such  biting  sarcasm  the  tendency  of 
the  theologians  and  preachers  of  his  day  to  HegeHanize 
Christianity  as  Strauss,  whose  first  edition  of  the  "Leben 
Jesu"  was  written  from  the  HegeHan  point  of  view.  But 
even  the  pantheism  of  Hegel  was  a  valuable  counterweight 
to  the  jejune  deism  of  the  old  rationahstic  school;  his  con- 
tribution to  the  historic  interpretation  of  Christianity  was  a 
valuable  offset  to  the  abstract  rehgion  of  Kant,  his  faith 
in  the  rationaHty  of  rehgion  was  a  valuable  corrective  to 
the  agnosticism  of  Kant,  and  his  influence  upon  specula- 
tive theologians  like  Rothe  and  Dorner  and  upon  such  a 
theologian  as  Samuel  Harris,  as  well  as  upon  such  teach- 
ers and  preachers  as  Professor  John  Caird,  has  certainly 
been  of  a  very  salutary  character.  We  are  likely  to  under- 
estimate the  influence  of  the  great  philosophical  thinkers 
upon  the  modern  preacher  because  we  do  not  readily  and 
directly  trace  the  influence.  But  it  is  not  the  less  real  that 
it  is  remote  and  indirect,  coming  through  representative 
theologians  and  through  the  forms  by  which  it  is  inter- 
preted in  Hterature. 

The  philosophic  movement  in  Great  Britain  was  in 
some  sort  an  expansion  and  modification  of  that  in  Ger- 
many. The  German  movement  did  not,  to  any  consider- 
able extent,  directly  touch  the  theologians  of  the  Bridsh 
churches.  Those  who  were  immediately  touched  by  it  in 
many  cases  reacted  against  it.     It  was  for  the  most  part 


INFLUENCES   OF   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY     67 

through  men  of  literary  genius  that  it  reached  the 
churches. 

The  theology  of  Great  Britain  has  been  based  on  a  defec- 
tive conception  of  the  relation  of  God  to  the  universe.  It 
was  a  defective  supernaturaUsm.  It  put  God  at  too  great 
distance  from  His  universe,  and  made  the  problem  of  His 
practical,  working  relation  with  it  an  extremely  difficult,  if 
not  an  altogether  impossible,  one. 

It  alUed  itself  with  the  deistic  point  of  view  that  prevailed 
in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries.  God  is  out- 
side and  above  the  world,  and  can  get  into  redemptive  rela- 
tion with  it  only  by  breaking  into  its  order  and  suspending 
it.  This  externahzing  of  God  involved  the  externaUz- 
ing  of  rehgion.  The  internal  evidences  for  Christianity, 
which  are  the  choice  possession  of  our  age,  evidences  from 
the  moral  consciousness,  from  rehgious  feeUng  and  senti- 
ment, from  the  adaptation  of  Christianity  to  the  innermost 
needs  of  the  human  soul  and  the  soul's  response  to  it,  which 
furnish  a  basis  for  value  estimates,  and  thereby  for  the 
inner  conviction  of  the  reaUty  and  truth  of  Christianity, 
the  religion  of  that  period  knew  but  little  of.  At  any  rate 
it  did  not  figure  largely  in  the  defence  of  Christianity.  If 
God  is  introduced  to  His  own  world  in  a  supernatural  reve- 
lation to  save  men,  it  is  done  by  an  act  of  violence.  There 
is  a  shock  in  nature  that  arrests  the  attention  of  men,  and 
this  discloses  a  new  presence  and  power,  and  only  this  is 
adequate  to  disclose  God.  Hence  the  argument,  from 
miracle  and  from  prophecy,  which  is  the  internal  miracle, 
was  the  stock  argument  of  the  age.  The  change  that  has 
come  is  a  change  from  what  is  external  to  what  is  internal 
in  religion,  from  the  experience  that  only  approximates 
the  reaHty  of  rehgion  to  what  is  most  interior  and  essential, 
from  external  to  internal  evidence.  We  pass  from  argu- 
ments that  appeal  to  "the  faculty  judging  according  to 
sense "  to  the  testimony  of  the  religious  consciousness. 
This  change  in  the  theological  point  of  view  was  possible 


68  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

only  because  of  a  change  in  the  philosophical  point  of  view 
behind  it,  a  change  from  the  philosophy  of  sense  to  the 
philosophy  of  spirit.  Kant  and  Schleiermacher,  as  we 
have  seen,  are  the  two  great  forces  in  the  transition  move- 
ment of  Christianity,  from  the  realm  of  the  external  to  the 
realm  of  the  internal.  Pietism  in  Germany  and  Puritan- 
ism and  later  on  Methodism  in  Great  Britain  had  already 
made  preparation  for  this  change  by  laying  accent  upon 
the  mystical  element  in  religion,  or  upon  rehgion  as  an  im- 
mediate spiritual  experience.  German  pietism  influenced 
Enghsh  Puritanism,  and  Moravian  mysticism  nurtured 
Frederick  Schleiermacher  as  it  modified  the  religious  views 
and  experiences  of  John  Wesley.  But  the  philosophic 
basis  of  pietism,  Puritanism,  and  Methodism  was  un- 
changed. They  restored  a  spiritual  rehgion,  but  they 
needed  a  spiritual  philosophy. 

In  England  this  new  philosophic  influence  had  its 
immediate  centre  in  Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge.*  Cole- 
ridge was  preeminently  a  poet,  and  his  method  of  approach- 
ing all  subjects  was  the  hterary  method.  But  he  was  a 
man  of  most  comprehensive  genius,  a  mystic,  a  theologian, 
and  a  philosopher.  He  was  an  Enghshman  with  the  soul 
of  a  German.  He  adopted  Kant's  distinction  between  the 
understanding  and  the  reason  and  interpreted  it  in  his 
"Aids  to  Reflection."  He  held,  as  did  Newman,  that  the 
understanding,  the  "faculty  judging  according  to  sense," 
has  only  a  negative  use  in  dealing  with  the  problems  of 
rehgion.  It  can  only  defend  what  is  known  through  the 
higher  reason,  which  is  the  faculty  that  deals  with  the 
eternal  reahties  of  the  universe.  But  he  enlarged  the  scope 
of  the  Kantian  reason,  and  interpreted  it  as  covering  the 
entire  content  of  the  higher  intuitions  and  feehngs  and 
moral  convictions  of  the  soul  and  he  is  in  some  sort 
a  combination  of  Schelling,  Schleiermacher,  and   Kant, 

1  See  Tulloch's  "  Religious  Thought  in  Britain  during  the  Nine- 
teenth Century,"  Ch.  I. 


INFLUENCES   OF   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY    69 

sharing  also  the  asstheticism  of  Herder.  For  him,  religion 
is  an  inner  reality  belonging  to  the  constitution  of  the 
human  soul  and  is  vindicated  b}'  the  action  of  the  soul  in 
the  totahty  of  its  higher  powers.  Its  evidences  are  given 
in  an  intuitional,  ethical,  spiritual  experience ;  and  all  this 
is  a  rational  experience,  for  it  is  in  harmony  with  the 
speculative  reason.  Christianity  appeals  therefore  to  the 
moral,  spiritual,  and  rational  constitution  of  man.  The 
influence  of  Coleridge  was  one  of  the  important  agencies 
in  Great  Britain  that  carried  Christian  theology  from  the 
objective  basis  of  inference  over  into  the  realm  of  sub- 
jective experience.^ 

The  old  Oriel  School  at  Oxford  represented  by  Whately 
had  already  been  moving  in  the  same  general  direction. 
But  Whately  was  an  Aristotehan  rather  than  a  Platonist, 
and  he  worked  from  the  historical  and  critical  rather  than 
from  the  philosophic  point  of  departure.  It  was  the  poet- 
philosopher,  the  Christian  Platonist  Coleridge,  that  laid  the 
philosophical  groundwork  for  a  new  and  more  spiritual  type 
of  theology.  He  had  greater  influence  at  Cambridge  than 
at  Oxford,  and  it  was  Cambridge  that  became  once  more 
the  home  of  the  broad  churchman.  Many  of  these  broad 
churchmen  were  measurably  famihar  with  German  philos- 
ophy and  theology,  and  all  moved  in  their  thinking  along 
the  same  general  line  of  subj(;ctive  Christianity.  Cole- 
ridge represents  the  broad  church  movement  on  its  philo- 
sophical and  theological  sides,  and  Juhus  Hare  and 
Frederick  Maurice  are  in  this  closely  aUied  with  him. 
Whately  was  a  practical  man  with  strong  critical  tenden- 
cies. Arnold  was  a  man  of  sturdy  ethical  spirit.  Maurice 
was  more  highly  speculative,  a  man  of  subtle  theologic 
mind.  Kingsley  struck  out  into  Hterature  and  the  dis- 
cussion of  social  questions.  Thirlwall  and  Robertson 
were  its  great  preachers,  and  Stanley  the  most  influential 
ecclesiastic,  of   the   new   movement.     There  is   a  broad 

•  TuUoch's  "  Religious  Thou{-;ht,"  etc.,  Ch.  II,  41, 


yo  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

church  left-wing,  but  as  represented  by  the  men  above 
named,  the  movement  has  proved  itself  to  be  in  Hne  with 
a  genuine  supernatural  Christianity,  and  the  influence  has 
reached  the  dissenting  bodies  of  England,  the  Scottish 
churches,  and  the  churches  of  the  United  States.^ 

To  trace  any  single  influence  upon  the  Christian  pulpit 
is  a  very  difficult  task.  Any  influence  operates  in  large 
measure  unconsciously  in  its  subjects.  But  the  influence 
thus  inadequately  considered  has  become  an  undoubted 
inheritance  of  our  age,  and  the  pulpit  has  felt  its  power.  It 
has  furnished  a  new  philcsophic  basis  for  Christian  apolo- 
gedcs.  It  justifies  the  preaching  of  our  age  in  deahng 
with  those  truths  of  Christianity  that  are  most  closely 
connected  with  Christian  experience  and  which  were,  in 
fact,  its  original  product,  the  truths  that  belong  to  re- 
demptive rehgion.  It  is  natural  that  the  tone  of  preach- 
ing that  makes  its  appeal  to  experience,  that  addresses  the 
moral  sense  and  the  higher  spiritual  intuitions,  should  be 
changed.  The  very  form  also  is  modified.  As  being  the 
utterance  of  Hfe  appeahng  to  Hfe,  it  is  less  argumentative 
and  elaborate.  It  is  more  simple  and  more  suggestive  in 
quaUty,  and  more  concrete  and  persuasive. 

Ill .  Another  influence  that  powerfully  affected  the  preach- 
ing of  the  last  century,  the  full  measure  of  whose  signifi- 

nce  the  present  day  alone  is  disclosing,  is  the  historical 
nd  critical  movement.  We  have  already  seen  that  a  new 
awakening  of  the  historic  spirit,  new  interest  in  historic 
studies,  and  new  allegiance  to  the  historic  method  was  one 
of  the  characteristic  movements  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
In  the  defence  of  Christianity,  new  interest  in  Bibhcal 
criticism  was  therefore  necessitated.  But  it  was  the  fuller 
development  of  historical  and  critical  investigation  in  the 
last  century  that  led  to  the  abandonment  of  the  abstract 
and  speculative  rehgion  of  Enghsh  and  French  dei:vm  and 

'See  Pfleiderer's  "Development  of  Theology  in  Germany  and  its 
Progress  in  Great  Britain  since  1825,"  303  S. 


INFLUENCES   OF   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY     71 

of  German  rationalism  and  that  restored  Christianity  to  its 
rights  as  a  historic  rehgion.  Its  influence  in  the  German 
pulpit  disclosed  itself  in  two  general  directions/  In  the 
pulpit  of  the  liberal  and  mediating  schools  it  brought 
various  aspects  of  historic  Christianity  and  especially  the 
person  and  character  of  the  historic  Christ  into  fuller  promi- 
nence and  secured  for  preaching  a  more  concrete,  a  more 
experimental  and  practical  character.  In  the  old  con- 
fessional schools  the  historic  movement  awakened  new 
interest  in  the  historic  creeds  of  the  Lutheran  and  Re- 
formed churches.  Thereupon  followed,  at  the  beginning 
of  the  last  century,  a  type  of  confessional  preaching  that 
was  substantially  grounded  in  the  old  orthodoxy  of  the 
churches,  but  was  considerably  modified  by  the  forces 
that  were  everwhere  at  work  upon  the  pulpit,  and  es- 
pecially modified  in  its  Biblical  quaUty.  Claus  Harms 
and  Hengstenberg  of  BerUn  were  among  the  chief  repre- 
sentatives of  the  new  confessional  movement.  Harms 
was  an  erratic,  individualistic  genius,  a  preacher  of  great 
dramatic  power  and  of  a  realistic  habit  of  mind,  who, 
although  as  much  indebted  to  Schleiermacher  as  New- 
man to  Thomas  Scott,  reacted  against  the  extremely  sub- 
jective character  of  his  theology.  Hengstenberg  was  as  well 
equipped  in  the  scholarship  of  his  day  as  was  the  English 
Pusey,  knowing  all  the  currents  of  thought  about  him,  was 
a  skilful  and  masterful  preacher  of  immense  dogmatic 
force,  and  the  pride  and  prop  of  his  school.  But  his 
dogmatic  and  polemic  temper  turned  all  his  scholarly 
resources  into  the  interest  of  partisan  intolerance  and 
abuse.  Various  other  influences  besides  the  increase  of 
fresh  historic  interest  wrought  in  this  revival  movement  as 
in  the  corresponding  movement  later  on  in  the  Anglican 
church,  fresh  interest  for  example  in  the  Lutheran 
Reformation,    whose    tricentenary   had    been    celebrated 

'  Lichtenberger's  "  History  of  German   Theology  in  the  Nineteenth 
Century,"  I,  Ch.  IV;   II,  Chs.  IV  and  V. 


72  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

with  great  eclat  among  the  churches,  weariness  with  the 
disintegrating  and  unfruitful  rationalism  that  had  so  long 
dominated  the  German  mind,  and  on  the  other  hand 
weariness  with  a  purely  subjective  religion.  There  was 
also  a  new  awakening  of  the  patriotic  life  of  the  German 
people  in  connection  with  the  disastrous  poHtical  events 
of  the  day  which  was  almost  a  new  rehgious  awakening. 
Of  this  new  patriotic  devotion  the  state  took  advantage 
and  summoned  the  people  to  new  allegiance  to  the  church 
and  its  doctrines. 

In  the  movement  somewhat  correspondent  in  England^ 
we  find  prominent  Oxford  men  at  the  beginning  of  the 
century,  notably  Whately  and  Arnold,  who  were  historic 
students.  Here,  as  in  Germany,  the  historic  movement 
advanced  in  two  directions  and  became  tributary  to  two 
opposite  tendencies  according  to  the  theological  predilec- 
tions of  its  subjects.  Among  the  questions  in  vigorous 
discussion  at  that  time  was  that  of  the  relation  of  the 
church  to  the  state.  New  philosophical  and  theologi- 
cal conceptions  involved  naturally  modified  political  and 
ecclesiastical  conceptions.  Historical  criticism  allied  itself 
with  these  movements  of  thought,  and  various  political 
and  ecclesiastical  problems  were  subjected  to  fresh  in- 
vestigation and  vigorous  discussion.  It  was  in  the  broad 
church  section  of  the  Anglican  church  that  these  questions 
received  most  Uberal  construction  and  pointed  the  church 
in  the  direction  of  a  sort  of  pohtical  ecclesiasticism.  The 
broad  churchmen  called  for  a  closer  coordination  of  poHti- 
cal and  ecclesiastical  and  of  secular  and  rehgious  Ufe. 
Prominent  men  in  this  school,  Hke  Arnold,  turned  their  his- 
torical and  critical  studies  into  this  interest  and  sought  to 
broaden  the  foundation  of  the  church.  This  movement 
secured  for  the  broad  church  pulpit  a  wider  range  and  a 
more  distinctively  ethical  and  humanistic  character.     It  was 

•  Tulloch's  "  Religious  Thought,"  Lecture  III,  86;  Pfleiderer's  "  De- 
velopment," etc.,  300  ff. 


INFLUENCES   OF   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY     73 

naturalistic  and  humanistic  rather  than  ecclesiastical,  theo- 
logical, speculative,  or  dogmatic  in  its  tendencies.  This 
movement  was  in  its  humanistic  aspects  in  Une  with  the 
broader  tendencies  of  the  dissenting  churches,  and  their 
preaching  bore  the  mark,  and  still  bears  it,  of  range  and 
cathoUcity  and  of  ethical  and  humanistic  cogency.  This 
movement  has  also  had  an  influence  upon  the  preaching 
of  the  United  States  and  its  preaching  bears  the  same 
general  mark. 

On  the  other  hand  the  historic  movement  allied  itself 
with  the  high  church  reaction,  which  became  tributary 
to  a  new  effort  at  the  restoration  of  external  church  au- 
thority. It  was  a  reaction  against  the  subjectivity  of  the 
critical  and  philosophical  hberals.  It  was  born  of  fear 
that  the  church  was  threatened  with  a  new  type  of  lati- 
tudinarianism,  even  of  infideHty  and  atheism,  and  high 
churchmen,  represented  notably  by  Newman,  the  master 
spirit  of  the  movement,  and  its  great  preacher,  turned  their 
historic  investigations  towards  ecclesiastical  subjects,  sought 
to  carry  the  church  back  to  earlier  foundations,  and  to 
revive  the  moribund  dogma  of  apostolic  succession.  It 
is  a  historic  movement  backward.  The  later  rituahstic 
movement  is  but  a  practical  appUcation  in  the  domain  of 
Hturgics  of  the  resuscitated  high  Anglican  conception  of 
the  church  and  the  ministry'.  Both  rest  upon  external 
traditional  church  authority.  Ecclesiastical  objectivity  is 
the  only  escape  from  theological  subjectivity,  objective 
authority  the  only  escape  from  subjective  caprice. 

Newman  was  in  many  of  his  instincts,  particularly  in  his 
Hterary  instincts,  a  modern  man.  In  his  brilhant  diction 
he  spoke  most  persuasively  to  the  men  of  his  time,  and 
apart  from  the  influences  of  modern  thought  and  life 
Newman  had  not  been.  But  there  is  an  archaic  note  in 
his  preaching.  It  is  a  voice  from  the  past,  not  the  voice 
of  hope  for  the  future.  The  preaching  of  high  Anglican- 
ism rings  with  the  consciousness  of  the  authority  of  the 


74  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

church,  and  its  dogmatic  and  archaic  character  still  bears 
witness  to  the  lingering  influences  of  the  dogmatic  basis 
of  the  Anghcan  movement.  And  yet  it  is  true  that  there 
were  influences  at  work  about  this  movement  and  in  the 
movement  itself,  particularly  of  a  rehgious  character,  that 
have  resulted  in  a  decided  modification  in  the  preaching 
of  the  high  church.  Mozley  and  Liddon,  although  high 
AngHcans,  holding  the  dogmatic  and  ecclesiastical  point  of 
view,  are  in  many  respects  modern  preachers. 

Biblical  criticism  as  a  phase  of  the  modern  historic 
movement  has  powerfully  affected  the  work  of  the  pulpit. 
It  has  a  philosophical  as  well  as  historical  basis,  and  it  is 
an  influence  that  has  been  at  work  for  more  than  a  century. 
The  hterary  enterprise  of  our  age  and  the  practical  inter- 
ests of  theology  and  of  the  church  have  also  been  tributary 
to  its  development.  That  its  results  have  noi  all  and 
always  been  beneficial  will  hardly  be  questioned.  But 
there  are  beneficent  results  and  they  are  manifold.  It  has 
enlarged  and  enriched  the  preacher's  knowledge  of  the 
Bible  and  increased  the  amount  as  well  as  bettered  the 
quahty  of  Bibhcal  preaching.  It  has  modified  his  con- 
ception of  the  Bible  as  a  basis  of  authority,  thus  involving 
his  conception  of  revelation  and  inspiration.  Even  if  his 
attitude  towards  the  higher  criticism  so  called  is  unfriendly, 
he  is  obUged  to  modify  his  exegetical  basis,  so  that  it  may 
be  claimed  without  question  that  whatever  may  be  his 
school  the  modern  preacher  has  a  more  inteUigent  and 
tenable  conception  of  the  Bible  and  a  better  homiletic  use 
of  it. 

The  chief  interest  of  Bibhcal  criticism  has  centred  in 
historic  Christianity,  and  especially  in  the  person  of  the 
historic  Christ.  Its  chief  problem  has  been  how  to  inter- 
pret the  phenomena  of  his  earthly  life,  for  our  conception 
of  the  historic  Christ  involves  our  conception  of  historic 
Christianity,  and  Old  Testament  criticism,  as  a  religious 
interest  at  least,  is  of  chief  importance  in  its  bearing  upon 


INFLUENCES  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  75 

the  New  Testament  record  of  Christ's  life.  The  earlier 
rationalistic  criticism  doubtless  was  a  destructive  influence 
and  wrought  unfavorably  in  the  work  of  the  pulpit.  But 
the  later  type  of  criticism  has  shown  itself  more  anxious  to 
conserve  the  interests  of  the  reUgious  life,  and  has  been 
tributary  to  better  homiletic  results.  It  may  be  claimed, 
therefore,  that  BibUcal  criticism  has  in  the  long  run  shown 
itself  to  be  favorable,  indirectly  at  least,  to  the  higher  and 
more  permanent  interests  of  historic  Christianity.  Results 
have  shown  the  extreme  difficulty  of  explaining  the  phe- 
nomena of  Christ's  earthly  history  upon  a  purely  natu- 
raUstic  basis.  It  may  be  questioned  whether  the  idealism 
of  the  later  critics,  in  so  far  as  they  undertake  to  rule  out 
the  supernatural  from  Christianity,  and  from  the  person 
of  the  historic  Christ,  is  any  nearer  the  solution  of  these 
problems  than  the  crass  naturaUsm  of  the  earher  critics. 
The  Christian  pulpit  has  accepted  the  positive  results  of 
BibUcal  criticism  and  has  in  the  main  rejected  its  negative 
results.  Competent  Biblical  students,  imbued  with  the 
historic  spirit  and  following  the  historic  method,  are  found 
in  all  Christian  communions.  They  are  found  not  only 
in  Germany  and  France  and  Holland  but  in  the  AngHcan 
church  among  all  schools,  among  the  Scottish  and  Dis- 
senting churches  and  in  the  churches  of  the  United  States. 
There  is  not  only  a  better  type  of  Biblical  preaching  but  a 
firmer  grasp  of  historic  Christianity  and  a  more  practical 
and  effective  method  of  interpreting  and  applying  it. 
yt  IV.  Another  influence  that  has  wrought  effectively  and 
/beneficently  upon  the  modern  pulpit  is  a  newly  awakened 
literary  spirit.  Any  significant  movement  of  thought  and 
life  is  sure  sooner  or  later  to  disclose  itself  in  the  literature 
of  a  people,  and  its  influence  will  soon  appear  in  the  work 
of  the  pulpit.  The  development  of  modem  German  litera- 
ture illustrates  this.  It  took  connection  with  the  awaken- 
ing of  the  historic  spirit  and  reviveo  interest  in  historic 
studies,  while  at  the  same  time  it  furthered  the  historic 


76  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

movement.  Modern  Biblical  criticism  is  literary  as  well 
as  historical.  This  Hterary  movement  took  connection  in 
the  early  part  of  the  last  century  with  the  newly  awakened 
intellectual  life  and  especially  with  the  newly  awakened 
patriotic  spirit  of  Germany  and  was  of  a  strongly  patriotic 
and  distinctively  German  character.  It  was  a  phase  and 
a  perpetuation  of  the  eighteenth-century  humanism,  and 
took  the  name  of  romanticism.  Goethe  and  Schiller  were 
its  most  prominent  representatives,  but  it  included  a  large 
number  of  lyric  poets  hke  "Novahs,"  whose  poetry  was  of 
a  strongly  patriotic  and  rehgious  character.  To  this  influ- 
ence Schieiermacher  became  subject.  His  preaching,  es- 
pecially in  the  earUer  period  of  his  career,  was  notably 
influenced  by  the  romanticist  spirit.  Under  the  influence 
of  Schieiermacher  and  others  of  a  hke  tendency,  the 
humanistic  spirit  has  wrought  productively  in  the  German 
pulpit,  securing  for  German  preaching  a  more  distinc- 
tively Christian  type  of  subject-matter,  as  deahng  more 
exclusively  with  historic  Christianity,  a  more  earnest  and 
sympathetic  tone,  a  simpler  homiletic  method,  and  a  more 
suggestive  Hterary  quahty.  The  hterary  culture  of  Ger- 
many has  also  taken  connection  with  the  discussion  of 
educational  problems  and  the  problems  of  social  science. 
As  a  result  German  preaching  has  become  somewhat  more 
distinctly  ethical  and  philanthropic. 

It  discloses  more  of  the  broad,  humane  spirit  that  is  the 
characteristic  of  the  age.  It  deals  somewhat  more  largely 
with  questions  of  human  interest.  The  age  of  dry,  cold, 
rationaHstic  preaching  has  vanished,  and  German  preach- 
ing is  more  human  and  more  responsive  to  the  interests  of 
men. 

The  development  of  modem  Enghsh  Hterature  is  not 
altogether  unhke  that  of  German  hterature,  but  it  dates 
from  a  later  period.  It  is  a  product  of  philosophical,  his- 
torical, and  critical  influences.  In  the  first  quarter  of  the 
last  century  there  was  a  notable  quickening  of  Hterary 


INFLUENCES  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  y-j 

activity  and  modification  in  its  character.  It  was  a  move- 
ment from  the  reahn  of  the  objective  in  thought  to  the  reahn 
of  the  subjective.  Enghsh  literature  in  the  eighteenth 
centur)',  as  we  have  seen,  bore  the  mark  of  the  externality, 
the  objectivity,  of  the  age.  It  bore  the  mark  of  the  deistic 
philosophy.  Pope  was  the  representative  of  the  literary 
objectivity  of  the  eighteenth  centur}'\  Coleridge,  Words- 
worth, Carlylc,  Tennyson,  Browning,  are  representatives 
of  the  literary  subjectivity  of  the  nineteenth  centur}-.  They 
bear  the  marks  of  a  new  philosophical,  historical,  and  criti- 
cal movement.  If  Pope  and  Johnson  were  Christian  deists, 
Coleridge  and  Wordsworth  were  Christian  pantheists. 
The  influence  of  this  new  Uterary  spirit  soon  reached  the 
pulpit  and  it  Ungers  in  it  to-day.  Even  in  High  Anghcanism 
the  influence  was  felt.  Keble  and  NewTnan  were  men  of 
literary  genius.  The  "  Christian  Year"  is  a  product  of  the 
new  inspiration.  Ne^vman  was  not  only  a  prose  writer 
upon  religious,  theological,  and  educational  subjects  of 
matchless  elegance  of  style,  but  a  poet  of  rare  subtlety  of 
thought,  strength  of  feeling,  and  beauty  of  diction.  Widely 
as  these  men  diverged  from  the  influences  that  lay  behind 
this  literary  movement,  apart  from  them  they  had  not  been. 
The  philosophic  basis  of  the  AngHcan  movement,  so  far  as 
it  had  any  such  basis,  although  claiming  a  certain  support 
in  the  spiritual  philosophy  of  Coleridge,  was  still  of  an 
antiquated  type,  and  fell  into  line  with  its  advocacy  of  ex- 
ternal authority  in  religion.  Even  Newman,  with  all  his 
brilliancy  and  power  as  a  preacher,  is  not  the  best  pulpit 
representative  of  the  hterary  movement  of  the  time.  It 
reached  its  best  and  most  characteristic  results  in  broad 
church  Anghcanism.  Coleridge,  as  we  have  already  seen, 
was  a  poet  as  well  as  a  philosopher  and  theologian,  and  his 
prose  writings  are  of  the  semi-poetic,  suggestive,  rather  than 
of  the  scientific  and  elaborate  sort.  Wordsworth  gathered 
about  him  a  group  of  men  who  were  intent  upon  intro- 
ducing a  new  spirit  into  English  literature.     These  men 


78  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

were  not  all  affiliated  with'the  broad  school  of  the  Anghcan 
church.  Wordsworth  himself  was  a  high  churchman. 
But  they  all  became  in  a  way  tributary  to  the  broad  church 
movement.  Ah  the  broad  church  preachers,  Frederick 
Robertson  preeminently,  were  largely  the  product  of  this 
hterary  movement.  Carlyle,  especially,  who  represents 
modern  Uterary  subjecti\dty  in  extreme  individuahstic 
form,  has  exerted  a  powerful  influence  upon  the  modem 
Enghsh  pulpit.  His  hterary  crusade  against  cant,  con- 
ventionalism, externahsm,  and  institutionahsm,  and  all 
manner  of  unreality  in  religion,  his  proclamation  of  the 
sacredness  of  the  individual  soul  and  hfe,  of  the  dignity  of 
work,  and  the  moral  necessity  for  it,  and  of  the  possibihties 
of  personal  achievement,  have  borne  good  fruit  among  Eng- 
hsh churchmen,  among  the  nonconforming  preachers,  and 
among  the  preachers  of  the  United  States.  The  influence 
upon  American  preachers  is  scarcely  less  than  upon 
Enghsh,  and  as  real.  Without  Coleridge,  Wordsworth, 
Carlyle,  and  Tennyson  we  should  never  have  had  the 
Frederick  Robertson  we  know,  the  most  characteristic 
representative  of  the  historical,  critical,  hterary,  not  to  say 
philosophical  and  scientific,  influences  of  the  age  that  ap- 
peared in  the  Enghsh  pulpit  during  the  last  century.  Nor 
should  we  be  able  otherwise  to  account  for  some  of  our 
most  influential  modern  American  preachers. 
•»»  V.  A  newly  awakened  rehgious  spirit  is  another  potent 
influence  in  the  work  of  the  modern  pulpit.  It  was  per- 
haps the  most  powerful  direct  influence  upon  a  portion  at 
least  of  the  Protestant  church,  especially  in  the  early  part 
of  the  nineteenth  centur}^  Every  great  awakening  from 
within  of  the  human  spirit  is  hkely  to  disclose  itself  in  two 
aspects.  It  is  an  awakening  to  intellectual  and  to  spiritual 
aspiration.  It  is  a  philosopliical  and  a  rehgious  awaken- 
ing. As  the  intellect  revolts  from  the  dominance  of  the 
senses  and  domesticates  itself  within  its  own  inner  world  of 
reflective  intcUigence,  so  the  rehgious  spirit  passes  from 


INFLUENCES    OF   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY     79 

the  realm  of  sheer  external  authority  and  finds  its  home 
once  more  in  the  reahn  of  the  inner  spiritual  Hfc.     Harnack 
has  directed  our  attention  to  this  phenomenon  in  the  rise 
of  scholasticism.^     To  the  intellectual  corresponds  the  re- 
ligious aspect.     The  awakening  of  the  mind  involved  also 
the  awakening  of  the  heart  and  reversely.     Ansehn  repre- 
sents the  movement  on  its  intellectual  side,  Bernard  on  its 
spiritual  side.     The  one  is  a  philosopher,  the  other  a  mystic. 
The  mystical  as  well  as  the  philosophical  spirit  has  always 
found  a  home  in  modern  Germany.     Without  the  mystical 
spirit,  or  the  rehgion  of  the  inner  life,  the  Reformation 
would  have  been  impossible.     Fundamentally  it  was  a 
movement  of  rehgion  from  its  external,  institutional,  dog- 
matic form  back  to  its  home  in  the  reahn  of  the  spirit. 
Among  the  two  most  profound  and  potent  influences  in  the 
modern  church  are  philosophic  thought  and  mystical  piety, 
and  both  find  their  home  in  Germany.     The  one  influence 
has  reached  the  church  indirectly,  and  largely  through  Ut- 
erature,  the  other  directly  by  the  agency  of  men  of  rehgious 
genius.     Kant  was  the  great  representative  of  philosophic 
ideaHsm,   or  of   the   subjective   principle   in   speculative 
thought.     Zinzendorf  was  a  prominent  representarive  of 
rehgious  ideahsm,  or  of  the   subjective  principle  in  the 
domain  of  rehgion.     Schleiermacher,  the  disciple  of  Spi- 
noza and  of  Kant,  was  also  in  his  early  years  associated  and 
aUied  with  the  school  of  Zinzendorf.     In  him  we  find  the 
meeting  point  of  philosophic  speculation  and  of  mystical 
piety.     He  was  the  great  philosophic  mystic  of  his  age. 
In  the  post-Reformation,  as  in  the  pre-Reformarion,  the 
mystical  piety  of   Germany  appeared  in  various  types. 
But  now  at  last  there  emerges  in  Schleiermacher^  a  new 
type  of  philosophical  and  humanistic  mysticism,  —  mysti- 
cism enlarged,  enriched,  and  intellectually  vindicated  by 

»  "  History  of  Dogma."  Translated  from  the  3d  German  edition  by 
William  M.  Gilchrist.  B.D.,  Vol.  VI,  23  ff. 

^  For  Schleiermacher's  significance  for  the  modern  pulpit,  see  "  Repre- 
sentative Modem  Preachers,"  Ch.  I. 


8o  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

the  power  of  a  great  speculative  mind.     It  was  the  influ- 
ence of  this  new  type  of  mystical  piety,  in  which  philo- 
sophical, literary,  and   rehgious  elements  were  blended, 
that  secured  for  Schleiermacher  his  ascendency  over  the 
German  people  and  which  proved  to  be  one  of  the  most 
potent  agencies  in  undermining  deistic  rationalism,   by 
laying  a  firmer  foundation  for  the  rights  of  religion  within 
its  own  sphere.     It  enlarged  men's  conception  of  the  true 
basis  and  the  real  nature  of  Christian  knowledge.     It  gave 
rehgious  experience  a  broader  scope  and  laid  the  founda- 
tion for  a  new  type  of  evangelicahsm  in  the   German 
churches.     It  was  one  of  the  sources  of  the  mediating 
school  that  produced  men  like  Tholuck,  of  whom  mention 
will  be  more  fully  made  later  on,  whose  preaching  was 
characterized  by  the  intelHgence  of  the  theological  thinker, 
the  insight  and  learning  of  the  Bibhcal  scholar,  and  the 
devout  feehng  of  the  Christian  mystic.     It  infused  new  life 
into  the  German  pulpit.    It  affected  all  schools  in  the  Ger- 
man church,  —  evangehcal,  Hberal,  and  confessional.     It 
has  intensified  and  perpetuated  the  strongly  sympathetic 
and  genuinely  sentimental  character  of  German  preaching. 
With  the  ethical  element  of  Kant  or  the  rational  element  of 
Hegel  even  German  HberaHsm  combines  something  of  the 
mysticism  of  Schleiermacher.     Even  those  schools,  Kke  the 
Ritschhan,  that  decry  mysticism  in  rehgion  are  thriving 
upon  the  results  of  it.     The  rationaUsm  of  the  German 
pulpit  has  been  thoroughly  modified  by  it,  appearing  in  a 
wholly  new  form  and  always  with  a  more  distinctively 
rehgious  tone.     It  was  during  Schleiermacher's  Ufe  that 
the  orthodox  confessionahsm  of  the  German  church  un- 
derwent a  decided  change.     A  variety  of  agencies  indeed 
contributed  to  this  result.     They  were  in  part  historical. 
They  were  also  patriotic  and  poHtical,  as  well  as  ecclesi- 
astical  and    dogmatic.     They  involved,  doubtless,  in   a 
measure,  reaction  against  the  extremely  subjective  quality 
of  Schleiermacher's  movement.     But  the  tone  of  devout 


INFLUENCES   OF   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY     Si 

religious  feeling,  the  pietistic  quality  which  characterizes 
the  confessional  preaching  of  the  modem  German  pulpit, 
is  due  in  large  measure  to  the  more  distinctively  religious 
movement  of  the  age,  by  vs^hich  the  religious  life  of  the 
German  churches  was  greatly  enriched  and  strengthened. 
The  moral  and  reUgious  life  of  the  churches  of  Great 
Britain  also  was  greatly  enriched  and  strengthened  in  the 
last  century,  and  the  pulpit  won  new  power.  The  results 
of  the  great  awakening  under  the  Wesleys  and  Whitefield, 
whose  initiative,  as  we  have  seen,  belongs  to  the  eighteenth 
century,  were  felt  in  the  British  und  in  the  American  pul- 
pit as  well  during  the  following  century.  The  pulpit  of 
the  entire  EngUsh-speaking  world  would  have  been  far 
inferior  in  spiritual  and  etliical  effectiveness  but  for  that 
awakening.  It  involved  the  emancipation  of  rehgion  from 
extemaHsm  and  institutionahsm,  and  its  return  to  its  home 
in  the  heart  of  man.  The  Wesleyan  movement  has  a  cer- 
tain affiUation  with  the  pietistic  movement  in  Germany. 
It  shares  with  Moravianism  its  doctrine  of  the  indwelling 
of  Christ,  the  witness  of  the  Spirit,  its  vivid  representations 
of  the  sufferings  of  Christ  by  virtue  of  which  he  becomes  the 
ground  of  justification,  its  doctrine  of  faith,  repentance,  and 
conversion,  some  of  its  ecclesiastical  customs,  and  its  ascetic 
habit  of  life.  As  already  suggested,  the  Wesleyan  move- 
ment contributed  but  httle  to  the  thought  of  the  Christian 
pulpit.  It  has  indeed  cooperated  with  other  agencies  in 
enriching  the  subject-matter  as  well  as  tone  of  modem 
preaching,  and  illustrates  in  a  way  the  power  of  a  new 
religious  life,  under  favorable  condidons,  to  quicken  and 
enrich  the  mental  life.  But  it  was  not  a  movement  of 
thought.  The  new  spiritual  hfe  worked  largely  through 
the  old  forms  of  thought.  But  Wesleyanism  must  be  ac- 
counted as  the  greatest  moral  and  spiritual  force  of  the  last 
centur}\  It  has  reached  classes  that  otherwise  had  not  been 
reached,  and  it  has  leavened  other  churches  than  the  Wes- 
leyan with  its  spiritual  power.     All  the  nonconforming 


82  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

churches  of  Great  Britain  have  been  enriched  by  it. 
It  in  fact  rescued  the  Puritan  churches  from  spiritual 
decay  and  possible  death,  and  the  ethical  and  spiritual 
cogency  of  their  preaching  attests  its  perpetual  inspiration. 
The  philanthropic  and  missionary  character  of  modern 
Enghsh  and  American  preaching  secured  from  it  an  im- 
petus which  has  never  been  lost.  The  evangeUcal  branch 
of  the  Anglican  church  was  most  directly  influenced  by 
the  revival  movement,  and  has  perpetuated  something  of 
its  evangehcal  spirit.  It  may  have  lost  something  of  the 
freshness  and  reality  of  its  evangelical  and  evangelistic 
tone,  but  it  is  still  the  home  of  evangelical  piety.  No 
branch  of  the  church  is  more  fruitful  in  Christian  benevo- 
lence, and  its  preaching  is  of  an  earnest  and  practical  sort. 
Even  high  church  AngUcanism,  from  which  it  sprang,  has 
felt  its  power.  Many  of  the  leading  preachers  of  the  high 
church  school  have  received  permanent  influence  from 
the  representatives  of  the  evangehcal  movement.  It  was 
to  Romaine,  the  evangehcal,  that  Newman  traced  his  con- 
version, and  it  was  to  Thomas  Scott  that  he  owed  his  soul. 
And  Frederick  Robertson,  nurtured  in  the  evangeUcal 
school,  but  in  a  sort  aflihated  with  high  AngUcanism,  per- 
petuated in  the  estabUshed  church  much  of  the  spirit  of 
the  great  awakening. 

It  is  true  that  apart  from  other  influences  —  intellectual, 
ethical,  social,  Uterary  —  that  belong  characteristically  to 
the  last  century,  cooperating  with  the  newly  awakened 
reUgious  Ufe,  it  would  never  have  accompUshed  the  best 
results  in  modifying  and  enriching  EngUsh  and  American 
preaching.  The  introduction  especially  of  a  new  type  of 
philosophic  thought  and  of  a  new  Uterary  spirit  after  the 
reUgious  movement  was  pretty  well  developed  is  of  espe- 
cial significance.     But  on  the  other  hand,  apart  from  it, 

y vail  these  influences  would  have  failed  of  best  results. 

''^^x yi.   It  remains  to  consider  the  influence  of  our  complex 
£fed  practical  modem  Ufe  upon  the  preacher's  work.    The 


INFLUENCES   OF   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY     83 

modem  pulpit  is  confronted  not  only  with  changed  theories 
and  sentiments,  but  with  changed  conditions.  The  thought 
and  sentiment  of  the  age  reach  the  pulpit  largely  through 
its  practical  life.  Ideas,  sentiments,  and  feehngs  embody 
themselves  in  concrete  forms  and  work  themselves  out  in 
concrete  results,  and  it  is  these  results  that  to  a  large  ex- 
tent dominate  the  pulpit,  even  after  their  sources  have 
become  somewhat  obscured.  Practical  hfe  in  general  has 
great  influence  in  quickening  and  regulating  reflective  life, 
and  thus  it  influences  the  preaching  of  any  age.  We  see 
this  in  the  development  of  church  life.  The  theology  that 
is  most  available  for  the  work  of  the  church,  most  preach- 
able,  has  developed  with  the  hfe  of  the  church.  In  the 
order  of  thought  and  time,  Christianity  as  a  rev&lation  of 
God  may  exist  before  its  concrete  embodiment  in  the 
church.  But  without  the  Uving  church  Christianity  would 
never  have  developed  either  on  its  reflective  or  on  its  prac- 
tical side.  Note  the  influence  of  the  practical  Hfe  of  the 
church  upon  the  preaching  of  the  apostoHc  age.  It  is  a 
practical,  not  a  scientific  interest  that  dominates  it.  There 
was  no  scientific  theology  in  the  strict  sense  behind  apos- 
toUc  preaching.  Even  Paul,  the  best  equipped  theological 
thinker  of  the  apostoHc  church,  discusses  only  such  theo- 
logical questions  as  are  thrust  upon  him  by  the  practical 
conditions  and  needs  of  the  churches,  and  with  chief  refer- 
ence to  the  furthering  of  those  interests.  The  weightiest 
theological  discussions  are  incidental  and  are  suggested  by 
existing  church  conditions.  Paul  was  a  skilful  dialectician, 
but  his  dialectic  bore  the  mark  of  practical  Hfe  rather  than 
of  abstract  thought.  His  discussions  are  simple,  uncon- 
ventional, practical.  All  this  indicates  the  power  of  actual 
Hfe  and  experience  upon  the  apostolic  interpretation  and 
appHcation  of  Christianity.  It  would  be  unseemly  and 
idle  to  depreciate  the  practical  results  of  scientific  thought 
in  the  domain  of  religion.  If  a  science  of  theology  is  pos- 
sible, it  must  be  as  really  important  as  any  other  science, 


84  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

but  after  all  its  value  depends  upon  its  quality.  And  it 
must  be  conceded  that  the  best  products  of  theologic 
thought  have  been  those  in  which  the  hfe  of  the  church 
and  human  life  in  general  have  influenced  it.  It  has 
deteriorated  when  it  has  been  divorced  from  life,  and  the 
church  itself  has  deteriorated.  Theology  has  become  hard, 
dry  science,  and  so  defective  even  as  science.  Divorced 
from  the  feehngs  and  affections  and  perhaps  even  from  the 
deeper  moral  convictions  and  so  from  true  rationahty,  it 
has  become  a  one-sided,  a  speculative,  abstract,  and  unre- 
liable product.  It  has  sometimes  found  its  way  into  the 
hands  of  teachers  and  preachers  who  have  lived  in  solitude, 
remote  from  ordinary  human  hfe,  out  of  touch  with  the 
living  world,  with  but  little  knowledge  of  men  and  of 
the  realities  of  hfe  about  them,  and  what  wonder  that  the 
preaching  of  such  men,  who  have  substituted  a  theology 
for  a  message,  should  fail  to  find  permanent  response  in 
human  nature  !  Rationahsm  and  orthodoxism  are  both 
unsound  manifestations  of  scientific  thought  in  so  far  as 
they  deal  solely  with  theological  abstractions  and  are 
divorced  from  the  concrete  realities  of  Hfe.  The  pulpit 
will  always  suffer  when  thought  is  divorced  from  hfe.  A 
healthy  pastoral  life  is  always  necessary  to  the  most 
effective  and  helpful  preaching.  It  not  only  rescues  the 
preacher  from  unf ruitfulness,  but  often  saves  him  from  the 
assaults  of  scepticism.  A  sound  practical  hfe  is  necessary 
to  a  sound  faith.  He  who  holds  the  faith  aright  holds  it 
"in  a  good  conscience." 

The  contact  of  the  modem  pulpit  with  the  reahties  of 
hfe  differentiates  it  to  a  considerable  extent  from  the  pul- 
pit of  former  periods.  The  subjects  with  which  it  deals 
are  of  more  vital  interest.  Its  spirit  is  more  democratic 
and  human,  its  object  more  practical,  its  methods  more, 
concrete  and  realistic.  We  call  this  a  practical  age,  but 
it  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  therefore  people  are  not 
interested  in  theology  nor  in  the  introduction  of  theology 


INFLUENCES   OF   THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY     85 

of  the  right  sort  and  in  the  right  way  into  the  pulpit. 
Doubtless  they  are  not  interested  in  the  technique  of 
theology  nor  in  the  dogmatic  method  of  presentation,  which 
have  no  proper  belonging  in  the  pulpit.  But  they  are  inter- 
ested in  the  great  problems  of  religious  thought,  for  they 
are  the  most  important  questions  of  practical  life  and  as 
such  they  are  readily  domesticated  even  by  the  average 
human  intelligence.  But  what  men  are  after  to-day,  is 
a  working  theology.  When  practical  life,  as  conditioned 
by  its  relation  to  the  world  of  reality,  deteriorates,  then 
genuine  interest  in  the  great  questions  of  theology  deterio- 
rates. Look  at  the  oriental  churches.  They  have  a  dead 
pulpit,  out  of  touch  with  Hfe,  and  a  stagnant  theology. 
Intelligent  missionary  enterprise  in  our  day  stimulates 
interest  in  the  great  questions  of  theology.  The  best 
missionaries  are  those  who  are  interested  in  the  presenta- 
tion of  Christianity  to  the  actual  needs  of  men  and  to  the 
conditions  of  hfe  as  they  find  them.  Our  attention  has 
often  been  directed  to  the  fact  that  pohtical  institutions 
have  influenced  the  reflective  hfe  of  the  church  and  have 
impressed  themselves  upon  its  theology  and  its  preach- 
ing. We  have  been  told  that  the  practical  hfe  of  a 
democracy  does  not  naturally  develop  a  creed  hke  that  of 
Athanasius,  or  of  the  Westminster  divines,  or  a  type  of 
preaching  such  as  was  based  upon  it.  The  theological 
imperiahsm  of  Augustine,  or  of  Calvin,  could  hardly  have 
been  an  American  product.  Modem  democratic  life  is 
largely  responsible  for  the  disintegration  of  Augustinian- 
ism  and  of  Calvinism.  It  is  claimed  that  Calvin's  scien- 
tific theology  was  influenced  by  the  imperiahstic  habit  of 
mind  which  was  the  product  of  a  past  age,  but  it  is 
evident  that  his  practical  theology  was  influenced  by  the 
practical  needs  of  the  churches  and  by  the  democratic 
spirit  that  had  been  quickened  by  the  Reformation.  His 
practical  theology  is  less  imperiahstic  than  his  scientific 
theology.     Fortunately  for  the   churches,   his   preaching 


86  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

was  often  more  strongly  influenced  by  practical  life  than 
by  his  own  speculative  theology,  and  he  was  a  pulpit 
teacher  of  great  practical  power  and  worth. 

The  recent  agitation  in  the  Presbyterian  church  for  a 
change  in  the  Westminster  Confession  did  not  originate 
solely  in  a  scientific  interest.  It  was  not  merely  the  strong 
thinkers  of  the  church  who  had  become  subject  to  a  new 
scientific  impulse  and  were  thereby  moved  to  agitate  a 
change.  It  came  largely  from  the  rank  and  file.  It  was 
a  movement  of  hfe,  not  solely  of  thought.  The  confession 
was  not  only  out  of  harmony  with  the  thought  of  the  age, 
but  what  is  of  more  importance,  it  was  out  of  harmony 
with  the  hfe  of  the  age.  The  revision  movement  was  a 
product  of  practical  need.  It  was  an  outcry  of  spiritual 
and  ethical,  as  well  as  of  mental,  want.  It  is  hfe,  not 
purely  speculative  thought,  that  discloses  the  defects  of 
theological  theories  and  that  forces  a  change.  A  theo- 
logical movement,  hke  other  important  movements,  must 
be  set  in  the  slow  course  of  historic  development  in  order 
that  its  defects  may  be  discovered,  and  it  is  not  abstract 
speculative  thought  that  makes  the  disclosure.  It  is  Hfe 
that  tests  all  things,  throws  off  what  is  imperfect,  rescues 
and  reincorporates  the  larger  and  purer  truth.  Note  the 
parallehsm  in  the  realm  of  the  physical  sciences.  Modem 
industrial  hfe  has  wrought  most  powerfully  in  these 
sciences.  The  demands  of  "apphed  science"  have  quick- 
ened and  regulated  the  modern  spirit  and  method  of 
scientific  investigation.  Scientific  discovery  finds  an  in- 
centive in  the  practical  spirit  of  the  age.  The  most  prac- 
tical is  the  most  inventive  nation.  The  workshop  is  behind 
the  scientific  school,  "I'lecessity  is  the  mother  of  invention." 
It  is  a  needy  church  set  in  a  needy  world  whose  mighty 
forces  are  playing  upon  and  in  and  through  it  that  quick- 
ens and  regulates  the  pulpit  that  is  set  to  meet  those  needs. 
It  is  the  great  living,  restless,  needy  world  whose  voices 
reach  most  potently  the  man  who  would  help  his  f  ellowmen. 


INFLUENCES  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  87 

The  two  great  subjects  of  investigation  during  the  last 
century   were   nature    and   man.     Physical    science    and 
anthropology  have  revolutionized  the  modern  world.  Their 
most  significant  contribution  to  the  modern  pulpit,  as  has 
already  been  suggested,  is  not  new  material  for  the  sermon 
product,  nor  a  new  method  of  thought,  nor  a  changed  habit 
of  mind,  although  all  this  is  involved,  but  a  new  world.  They 
have  entered  the  domain  of  practical  life  at  ever}'  point,  and 
their  developments  have  revolutionized  the  conditions  of 
human  existence.     It  is  hardly  possible  to  overstate_  the 
effects  of  this  upon  the  preacher's  task.     The  pulpit  is 
confronted  by  changed  industrial  and  commercial  con- 
ditions that  have  immeasurable  significance  for  its  work. 
Anthropology  cooperates  with  science  in  its  revolutionary 
work.     Social  and  political  changes  ally  themselves  with 
those  that  are  industrial  and  commercial  in  thrusting  new 
tasks  upon  the  pulpit.    The  democratic  spirit  has  invaded 
all  nations  where  modem  Hfe  has  free  development.  _  The 
relations  of  classes  have  changed.     New  social,  pohtical, 
and  industrial  problems  are  before  the  world.   The  preacher 
may  misinterpret  their  significance  for  his  work,  but  he  is 
not  permitted  wholly  to  lose  sight  of  the  facts.     Properly 
influenced  bv  the  facts,  his  preaching  will  have  a  vitality 
and  a  forcefulness  unknown  to  the  stiff,  respectable  pro- 
nunciamentos  of  the  pulpit  of  the  eighteenth  centur>\ 

There  are  four  prominent  and  leading  tendencies  that 
largely  dominate  our  complex  modem  hfe.  They  are 
impulses,  they  are  sentiments,  but  they  are  based  upon 
theories  that  press  for  practical  recognition  in  the  pulpit. 
One  is  what  may  be  called  the  realistic  tendency.  I  mean 
a  regard  for  the  reahty  of  things,  respect  for  facts,  impa- 
tience with  unverified  and  unverifiable  speculations,  in- 
tolerance of  dogmatic  assumptions  and  pronunciamentos, 
the  reign  of  common  sense.  The  modern  world,  indeed, 
is  not  bereft  of  idealism.  It  were  in  a  hopeless  condition 
without  it.     The  higher  element  in  English  and  American 


88  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

Puritanism  is  not  lost,  but  the  realistic,  the  practical, 
the  common-sense  element  asserts  itself  and  bears  sway. 
Of  course  there  are  visionary  people  enough.  Great 
masses  are  subject  to  old  delusions  that  take  new  form. 
But  the  modern  man,  the  man  who  is  most  completely 
under  the  dominance  of  the  modem  reahstic  habit  of 
mind,  has  large  use  for  common  sense.  He  is  intolerant 
of  the  pulpit  crank  and  of  the  visionar}',  impracticable, 
over-speculative  sort  of  preacher. 

The  ethical  impulse  is  also  strong.  I  do  not  mean  that 
the  modem  world  is  preeminently  moral.  In  many  fun- 
damental aspects  it  has  perverted  the  morality  of  Christ 
and  has  become  pagan  and  brutal.  I  mean  rather  that 
in  all  our  higher  thinking  ethical  considerations  clamor 
for  recognition,  and  judgments  of  moral  value  must  find 
a  place  in  our  theories.  The  ethical  tendency  demands 
that  life,  not  thought,  shall  be  put  first.  If  in  previous 
centuries  the  pulpit  has  put  dogma  first,  and  made  it 
supreme,  it  now  puts  reality  first.  Put  dogma  first  and 
the  church  in  the  end  will  suffer.  From  a  reign  of  con- 
fessionalism  we  get  by  a  strange  recoil  rationahsm.  Put 
life  first,  put  practical,  ethical,  spiritual  interests  first,  and 
the  church  thrives.  The  significance  and  value  of  the 
ethical  spirit  upon  the  Christian  pulpit  cannot  be  over- 
estimated. Christianity  appeals  to  the  moral  nature. 
Faith  must  be  held  "in  a  good  conscience."  It  is  no  longer 
possible  to  preach  upon  the  basis  of  alleged  extemal  au- 
thority doctrines  that  violate  the  moral  instincts.  It  is 
indeed  possible  for  men  who  violate  the  fundamental 
principles  of  Christian  morahty  to  hold  standing  in  the 
Christian  church  and  to  be  honored  as  Christian  phi- 
lanthropists, but  the  higher  moral  instincts  of  the  age  are 
against  them,  and  they  will  not  escape  the  higher  moral 
judgments  of  mankind. 

The  philanthropic  spirit  is  also  an  inheritance  of  the 
age.     Changed  conceptions  of  the  character  of  God  and 


INFLUENCES   OF   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY     89 

changed  estimates  of  the  worth  of  man  are  involved  in  it. 
As  a  result  the  sentiment  of  mercy  has  been  largely  de- 
veloped. As  a  single  illustration  of  its  effects  upon  preach- 
ing, note  the  modification  of  inhuman  conceptions  and 
harsh  statements  of  doctrine.  Why  is  it  that  doctrines 
that  were  once  preached  with  overwhelming  power  would 
now  be  perfectly  powerless,  would  even  awaken  mirth? 
Why  is  it  that  the  preacher  cannot  present  the  doctrine  of 
future  punishment  as  Edwards  did?  Why  is  it  that  in 
some  religious  bodies  the  preacher  has  no  contact  with 
large  sections  of  the  church  confessions,  or  if  he  touches 
them  at  all,  it  is  only  to  modify  them  or  explain  them  away 
or  repudiate  them  ?  Many  influences  have  been  at  work 
in  modifying  men's  theological  conceptions  and  behefs, 
but  one  of  the  most  potent  influences  upon  the  preacher 
in  his  presentation  of  the  severer  doctrines  is  the  fuller 
development  of  the  sentiment  and  feeling  of  human  com- 
passion in  our  time. 

The  disposition  to  enlarge  our  conceptions  of  the  sacred- 
ness  of  all  human  Hfe  is  another  tendency  of  our  time. 
The  distinction  between  the  sacred  and  the  secular  is  a 
subjective  and  empirical  distinction.  Interpreted  as  by 
the  true  significance  of  Hfe,  there  is  nothing  that  is  not 
sacred,  and  nothing  that  has  any  right  to  call  itself  other 
than  sacred.  From  the  world  of  ideal  reality  the  boundary 
line  between  them  vanishes.  Of  course  it  is  necessary  to 
the  welfare  of  the  world  that  a  distinction  should  be  made 
between  the  sacred  and  the  secular  as  empirical  realities, 
for  the  distinction  between  the  principle  of  hohness  and 
the  principle  of  sin  must  ever  remain,  until  sin  is  van- 
quished and  holiness  alone  remains,  or  until  the  sacred  in 
idea  has  become  the  sacred  in  actuahty.  There  is  there- 
fore always  a  place  and  a  function  for  the  churchman  who 
makes  a  sharp  distinction  bet\ve"n  the  sacred  and  the 
secular,  who  regards  it  as  profanation  to  mingle  the  sacred 
with  the  secular,  who  would  therefore  isolate  the  church 


go  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

and  would  work  from  without  down  upon  the  world  in  the 
way  of  conquest.  There  is  also  a  place  and  a  function  for 
the  churchman  who  distinguishes  between  the  sacred  and 
the  secular  in  the  interest  of  subjective  piety,  who  would 
isolate  piety  itself,  as  well  as  the  ordinances  of  the  church 
from  the  world,  in  order  that  it  may  protect  itself  and  keep 
itself  pure  and  so  work  the  more  effectively  upon  the  world. 
But  it  is  evident  that  both  of  these  conceptions  are  asso- 
ciated in  some  way  with  the  ascetic  view  of  life,  and  that, 
save  in  a  very  limited  degree,  they  are  not  in  harmony  with 
the  temper  of  the  time.  It  is  evident  that  these  views,  car- 
ried to  their  logical  extreme,  must  result  in  a  very  different 
attitude  toward  the  world  at  large  from  that  of  the  church- 
man who  maintains  that  all  is  sacred  that  pertains  to  the 
welfare  of  man,  and  that  all  human  interests  are  hallowed 
interests.  It  is  the  broad  churchman,  not  the  high  nor 
low  churchman,  that  is  most  fully  in  hne  with  the  spirit 
of  our  time.  It  is  not  my  purpose  to  note  the  influences 
that  have  wrought  this  change  in  the  conception  of  Hfe. 
It  is  enough  to  say  that  it  is  wnth  us,  and  as  a  result  our 
conception  of  the  kingdom  of  God  has  been  enlarged  and 
enriched,  and  in  this  comprehensive  form  has  become  one 
of  the  dominating  conceptions  of  the  age.  That  form  of 
the  social  organism,  therefore,  that  has  monopolized  the 
term  "  sacred  "  (the  church)  is  but  one  of  the  agencies  of  the 
kingdom  of  God  and  is  not  identical  with  it,  and  that  form 
of  it  we  call  secular  is  but  another  agency  of  that  kingdom. 
Both  are  necessary  to  represent  the  complete  conception 
of  the  kingdom  of  God.  All,  therefore,  is  sacred  as  relat- 
ing to  the  welfare  of  men,  and  to  the  furtherance  of  the 
kingdom  of  God.  The  effect  of  all  this  upon  Christian 
preaching  is  evident.  The  separatist  theory,  the  semi- 
ascetic  conception  of  life,  will  inevitably  result  in  a  type 
of  preaching  that  rules  out  of  the  pulpit  all  commerce  with 
the  great  living  questions  of  secular  life,  will  become  dog- 
matic and  ecclesiastical  and  unethical  or  sentimental  or 


INFLUENCES   OF   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY     91 

pietistic,  laying  undue  emphasis  upon  subjective  states  of 
feeling.  It  is  clear  enough  that  the  future  is  with  the 
preacher  who  gives  his  message  a  wide  range,  who  forces 
it  to  enter  ever\'  domain  of  human  life,  and  who  interprets 
to  men  the  religious  significance  of  their  hfe,  in  all  its 
varieties  of  experience.  It  is  the  revolution,  not  only  in 
modern  theories  of  hfe,  but  in  modern  conditions  of  Ufe, 
that  has  forced  this  recognition  from  the  preacher. 


CHAPTER  III 

PROMINENT    CHARACTERISTICS    OF    MODERN    PREACHING 

To  characterize  the  preaching  of  any  age,  even  with 
respect  to  its  most  salient  and  obtrusive  features,  is  no  easy 
task.  It  is  perhaps  especially  dii^cult  to  characterize  the 
preaching  of  our  own  age.  The  complexities  of  modem 
life  have  resulted  in  the  introduction  of  new  varieties  in 
the  types  of  preaching,  and  this  variety,  which  is  itself  one 
of  its  distinctive  marks,  makes  it  the  more  difficult  to 
characterize  it  otherwise.  Add  to  this  individual  and 
ecclesiastical  pecuHarities,  and  diversities  of  culture,  race, 
and  nationality,  and  the  task  becomes  still  more  com- 
phcated.  But  there  are  certain  salient  features  in  all 
preaching  that  is  entitled  to  call  itself  modem,  and  to  such 
it  will  of  course  be  necessary  to  confine  ourselves.  They 
are  prominent  in  the  preaching  especially  of  Protestant 
Germany,  Great  Britain,  and  the  United  States.  In  the 
previous  chapter  I  have  endeavored  to  lay  the  foundation 
for  our  estimate,  and  if  at  points  I  have  anticipated  the 
subject  of  this  chapter,  it  was  involved  in  the  necessity  of 
the  case,  and  need  not  condition  needless  repetition.  It 
seems  necessary  to  group  and  discuss  these  characteristics 
independently. 

I.  We  shall  hardly  be  mistaken  if  we  recognize  its 
experimental  quality  as  that  which  is  most  significant  and 
distinctive  in  modem  preaching.  Preaching  is  in  some 
comprehensive  sense  a  product  of  the  preacher's  ex- 
perience and  it  appeals  to  some  form  of  experience  in  the 
hearer.     By  this   it  is  not  implied  that  the  preaching  of 

92 


CHARACTERISTICS   OF   MODERxN    PREACHING       93 

all  former  periods  has  lacked  the  experimental  note.  No 
real  preacher  in  any  age  ever  uttered  truth  that  was  wholly 
foreign  to  him,  that  had  not  touched  his  inner  life,  that 
had  not  been  appropriated  and  domesticated  in  some  form 
of  inner  experience,  and  that  did  not  aim  to  produce  some- 
thing corresponding  in  the  inner  hfe  of  the  hearer.  No 
true"  preacher,  however  complete  his  allegiance  to  an 
external  authority,  whether  of  an  inspired  church  or  of  an 
inspired  book,  as  an  objective  basis  for  the  verification  and 
vindication  of  the  truth  he  proclaims,  has  ever  failed  to 
find  some  response  to  that  truth  in  his  own  inner  hfe. 
That  is  not  preaching  which  consists  in  retailing  objective 
truths  that  have  never  touched  the  hfe  of  the  soul.  A  man 
mav  teach,  he  may  attempt  to  interpret  opinions  to  which 
neither  his  intelligence  nor  moral  conviction  nor  feehng  re- 
sponds. But  this  is  not  preaching.  There  has,  perhaps,  in 
some  periods  of  the  history  of  the  church  been  a  substitute 
of  such  teaching  for  preaching,  but  it  must  always  be  un- 
fruitful and  it  has  no  place  in  the  Christian  pulpit  in  any 
age.  Doubtless  the  preachers  of  the  early  churches  ac- 
cepted as  normative  for  their  faith  what  was  to  them  an 
inspired  and  fixed  apostolic  tradition,  but  they  appro- 
priated its  truth  in  their  own  souls,  and  became  witnesses 
not  only  for  the  apostolic  tradition,  but  for  personal  ex- 
perience as  well.  The  mystical  preachers  of  the  Roman 
communion,  indeed  its  true  preachers  of  every  school, 
have  accepted,  sometimes  with  modifications  indeed,  but 
honestly,  the  authority  of  an  infallible  church  as  normative 
for  their  faith.  There  have  been  but  few  preachers  who 
can  compare  \\dth  the  giant  Great  Hearts  of  that^  church, 
in  the  completeness  with  which  they  appropriated  in 
their  sympathy,  if  not  in  their  intelhgence,  the  truth  they 
proclaimed,  and  in  the  power  with  which  they  proclaimed 
it.  It  was  a  distinctive  note  of  Puritan  and  other  forms 
of  EngHsh  dissent,  as  representative  of  post-Reformation 
theology,  that  while  they  held  tenaciously  to  the  objectively 


94 


THE   MODERN    PULPIT 


valid  authority  of  an  inspired  Bible  as  the  norm  of  faith, 
they  held  as  tenaciously  to  the  witness  of  the  Spirit  in  the 
soul  that  validates  the  truth  of  revelation  in  terms  of 
experience.  That  preaching  should  be  experimental  is 
no  new  discovery  of  the  modern  church.  It  has  been  con- 
tained in  the  very  conception  and  definition  of  preaching. 
But  what  distinguishes  the  experimental  quality  in  modern 
preaching  is  its  independence  and  comprehensiveness.  It 
does  not  feel  itself  absolutely  dependent  on  any  form  of 
merelv  objective  authority,  however  valuable  it  may  be  to 
validate  the  truth.  It  regards  itself  as  able  to  dispense 
with  all  infalhble  external  authority,  save  the  great  au- 
thority of  Christ,  who  becomes  inwardly  revealed  in  the 
soul's  own  hfe.  It  therefore  finds  in  the  experience  of  the 
inner  life  the  self-evidencing  power  of  truth.  Moreover, 
it  coordinates  and  unifies  all  forms  of  experience,  —  the 
rational,  the  emotional,  the  ethical,  the  spiritual, — and  finds 
in  such  unified  experience  a  scientific  as  well  as  practical 
basis.  It  was  given  to  the  last  centur}%  as  we  have  already 
seen,  to  redomesticate  religion  in  the  soul,  to  bring  it  from 
the  objective  world  of  authority  to  the  subjective  world  of 
experience  in  its  most  comprehensive  sense,  to  pass  from 
the  external  to  the  internal  evidences  of  its  reality,  to  re- 
store the  true  significance  of  rehgious  experience  for 
theology  and  for  the  hfe  of  the  church.  This  is  the  out- 
come of  two  great  modem  movements  especially,  —  one  of 
the  mind,  the  other  of  the  soul,  —  the  philosophical  and  the 
mystical  movement.  And  it  is  the  experimental  factor  in 
our  preaching  that  is  most  fundamental,  even  though  it 
may  not  be  most  obtrusive,  because  it  is  anchored  to 
these  two  great  movements.  Hence  it  has  a  larger  and 
more  correct  conception  of  religious  knowledge.  Religious 
knowledge  is  not  merely  the  mind's  knowledge  concerning 
religion,  knowledge  of  which  rehgion  furnishes  merely  the 
subject-matter,  and  the  mind  the  instrument  of  investiga- 
tion.    It  is  not  the  mind  holding  to  be  true  what  is  objec- 


CHARACTERISTICS   OF   MODERN   PREACHING       95 

lively  given  for  truth,  any  more  than  it  is  the  will  acknowl- 
edging it  to  be  true  independently  of  all  mental,  moral,  or 
spiritual  verification.  Religious  knowledge  is  truth,  re- 
hgiously  as  well  as  intellectually  appropriated,  truth  that 
has  become  a  moral  and  spiritual,  as  well  as  mental  pos- 
session, and  in  the  winning  of  which  the  entire  moral  and 
spiritual  manhood  is  active.  In  this  the  pulpit  has  re- 
turned to  the  Bibhcal  conception  of  knowledge,  and  has 
given  it  a  philosophical  grounding.  Bibhcal  knowledge 
is  the  knowledge  of  God  as  the  source  and  end  of  all 
things.  We  know  the  universe  only  as  we  know  it  in  Him 
who  is  behind  and  in  all  things  and  interprets  them.  More 
specifically,  it  is  the  knowledge  of  God  and  of  Christ  and  of 
the  kingdom  of  redemption,  in  which  all  true  human  hfe 
finds  its  ultimate  significance.  Hence  knowledge  is  always 
the  appropriation  of  something  that  is  given,  something 
that  is  revealed.  It  is  not  an  independent  intellectual  con- 
quest. Still  further,  it  is  truth  taken  in  the  form  of  ethical 
and  spiritual  as  well  as  mental  experience.  As  such,  it  has 
reality  and  validity  even  before  it  is  fully  formulated  by 
and  for  the  understanding,  and  it  may  indeed  have  a  rela- 
tive independence  of  the  conceptual  form  in  which  it  may 
be  expressed  and  interpreted.  No  one  knows  in  this  com- 
prehensive sense  who  simply  has  a  notion  of  what  is  true. 
No  one  holds  the  truth  who  does  not  hold  it  in  righteous- 
ness. Hence  what  is  called  the  heart  is  the  organ  of 
knowledge.  It  is  this  centre  of  moral  and  spiritual  man- 
hood, this  "rallying  ground"  of  the  moral  and  spiritual 
energies,  that  holds  it.  Through  the  lower  and  lowlier 
doonvays  of  feeling,  affection,  conviction,  that  open  in- 
ward as  well  as  outward,  the  truth  enters  and  finds  its 
home.  Hence  it  is  the  spiritual,  not  the  merely  intellectual, 
man  that  knows  the  truth.  Hence  it  is  the  Spirit  that 
guides  into  a  knowledge  of  the  truth.  It  enters  through 
the  open  doonvays  of  the  soul  as  into  its  own  domain  and 
stirs  the  moral  and  spiritual  energies  and  makes  them 


96  THE    MODERN   PULPIT 

eager  to  appropriate  what  is  native  to  them.  It  is  moral 
and  rehgious  manhood,  then,  that  is  the  organ  of  religious 
knowledge.  Mental  experience  of  the  truth  is  largely 
dependent  on  moral  and  religious  experience.  The  heart 
is  the  teacher  of  the  mind.  "Pectoral  theology"  was  the 
eariiest  form  of  theology,  and  the  church  has  never  been 
without  it.  But  it  has  been  philosophically  vindicated  in 
our  own  age.'  It  is  an  old  truth  with  new  significance,  and 
the  Christian  pulpit  is  heir  to  it. 

It  is  the  experimental  factor  in  modern  preaching  that 
largely  determines  its  subject-matter.  The  experiences  of 
the  rehgious  Ufe  become  normative  for  theological  science. 
They  furnish  the  stuff  with  which  reflection  deals.  They 
thus  become  regulative  for  the  type  of  theology  that  ap- 
pears in  the  pulpit  and  for  the  specific  themes  with  which 
it  deals.  Rehgion  as  a  fact  of  spiritual,  experience  tests 
the  worth  of  our  theology.  What  becomes  a  necessary 
dogma  of  behef  should  first  of  all  become  a  fact  of  faith. 
The  fides  qua  conditions  the  fides  quce.  Not  all  even 
of  the  rehgious  content  of  the  Bible  may  be  expressed 
in  forms  of  doctrine.  Only  what  is  significant  for  and 
verifiable  in  Christian  experience  should  become  a  fun- 
damental article  of  faith.  Bibhcal  teachings  that  have 
but  httle  significance  for  the  Christian  Hfe  can  have  but 
Httle  significance  for  the  reflective  hfe  and  but  httle  sig- 
nificance for  the  pulpit.  Reversely  any  truth  that  has 
value  for  the  Christian  hfe  should  and  will  have  reaUty 
for  the  mental  hfe,  should  and  will  be  capable  of  formu- 
lation in  terms  of  thought,  is  preachable,  and  should  be 
preached.  There  have  doubtless  been  formulated  state- 
ments of  Christian  doctrine  that  cannot  be  intellectually 
apprehended  and  appropriated.  As  stated,  they  can  have 
no  significance  for  our  mental  hfe,  and  it  is  questionable 
whether  they  have  any  significance  or  value  for  our  re- 
hgious hfe.  If  they  caimot  be  objects  of  intelhgent  behef 
it  is  questionable  whether    they  can  be  objects  of  the 


CHARACTERISTICS    OF   MODERN    PREACHING       97 

religious  faith.  But  all  the  great  truths  of  redemptive 
religion  are  in  some  form  essential  to  the  fullest  and  deep- 
est Christian  experience.  They  must  certainly  be  capable 
of  statement  in  intelUgible  form,  and  as  valuable  for  the 
Christian  Hfe  they  must  be  normative  for  the  belief  of  the 
Church  and  so  proper  subjects  for  pulpit  discussion. 

It  is  indeed  possible  that  modern  theology  may  over- 
estimate the  vahdating  power  of  subjective  reUgious  ex- 
perience. In  passing  from  the  realm  of  the  objective,  it 
has  sometimes  lost  itself  in  the  realm  of  the  subjectivc.^  In 
assuming  that  the  Christian  consciousness  of  the  individual 
and  of  the  community  is  able  to  determine  unconditionally 
and  independently  of  objective  revelation  what  truths  of 
Christianity  have  value  for  the  Christian  Hfe  and  what 
truths  therefore  are  to  be  preached,  it  is  possible  that  im- 
portant teachings  may  have  been  thrust  into  the  back- 
ground or  wholly  ruled  out  of  the  pulpit.  There  may  be 
and  doubtless  are  truths  which  no  Christian  man,  how- 
ever clear  his  vision  or  deep  his  experience,  has  yet  ade- 
quately seen  or  felt.  It  is  an  arrogant  and  unreasonable 
assumption  that  the  actual  content  of  the  Christian  ex- 
perience of  any  one  Christian  man  or  community  of  men 
in  any  age  can  or  should  be  made  normative  for  all  re- 
ligious truth,  even  redemptive  truth.  We  accept  truth  as 
well  as  fact  partly  upon  a  basis  of  external  authority,  and 
it  is  a  rational  tiling  to  do  so.  There  may  be  truths  which 
we  must  accept  upon  the  authority  of  the  Master,  who  is  in 
better  condition  to  know  than  we  are.  We  may  accept 
them  because  our  confidence  in  Him  is  a  well-grounded 
and  reasonable  confidence,  and  w^e  must  wait  for  deeper 
experience  and  larger  knowledge  in  order  to  secure  the 
needed  inward  rational  and  rehgious  verification  of  His 
word.  We  cannot  successfully  rule  objective  revelation 
out  of  the  problems  of  rehgious  knowledge,  for  historic 
rehgion  is  anchored  to  it.  It  is  the  preacher's  task  to 
coordinate  the  objective  and  the  subjective,  the  historical 


J 


98  THE    MODERN    PULPIT 

and  the  experimental.  And  yet  it  must  be  acknowledged 
that  no  man  can  preach  what  has  not  become  real  to  him. 
The  proclamation  of  what  is  unreal  to  the  preacher  would 
be  no  message.  It  is  a  great  gain,  therefore,  that  the 
preacher  of  our  day  in  his  proclamation  of  the  truth  is 
cautious  about  passing  the  bounds  of  his  own  experience. 
The  subjective  tendencies  of  modern  preaching  may 
result  in  a  certain  vagueness,  a  lack  of  sharpness  of  outline 
and  of  positiveness.  But  it  surely  does  not  follow  as  of 
necessity  that  preaching  should  be  vague  just  because  it 
is  experimental.  What  is  real  in  Christian  experience  will 
naturally  seek  to  express  itself  in  intelligible  thought. 
Religion  necessitates  theology.  They  may  be  differen- 
tiated in  idea,  but  should  not  be  divorced  in  experience. 
Ethical  and  religious  experience  demands  a  corresponding 
mental  experience.  The  spiritual  and  mental  life  should 
not  be  divorced.  Doctrine  that  does  not  express  what  is 
real  in  experience  can  hardly  be  of  supreme  importance, 
even  as  doctrine.  But  what  is  vital  to  the  Christian  Hfe 
certainly  can  be  expressed  in  terms  of  thought,  and  it  is 
not  a  creditable  thing  that  the  Christian  teacher  refuse  all 
effort  to  express  in  terms  of  clear  thought  what  is  real  to  his 
Christian  life,  or  that  he  should  regard  with  indifference 
the  attempts  of  other  men  to  do  it.  A  man's  success  in 
this  Hne  may  be  meagre,  but  the  attempt  to  bring  the  heart 
and  mind  into  accord  is  a  reasonable  one.  The  preacher 
who  makes  a  manly  effort  to  express  in  intelligible  terms 
of  thought  what  is  real  to  his  feehng  and  conviction,  how- 
ever inadequate  the  effort,  is  entitled  to  respect.  The 
preacher  who  holds  that  faith  should  be  normative  for 
belief,  experience  for  thought,  and  who  tries  to  make  con- 
nection between  them,  is  the  preacher  men  need  to  hear. 
The  course  of  philosophic  thought  in  our  time  is  in  the 
direction  of  a  more  harmonious  expression  of  the  content 
of  ethical  and  mental  experience,  and  the  effort  in  theologic 
thought  to  harmonize  the  utterances  of  the  heart  and  of 


CHARACTERISTICS    OF   MODERN  PREACHING        99 

the  mind  corresponds.  The  men  who  have  held  our 
attention  to  the  relations  of  thought  and  hfe  are  the  crea- 
tors of  a  new  era  for  the  church.  If,  then,  modern  preach- 
ing is  vague,  it  is  not  because  it  is  experimental  but  because 
it  is  unreasonable.  It  is  not  in  line  with  the  best  and  most 
characteristic  movements  of  our  time. 

Experimental  preaching  should  be  spiritual,  spiritual  in 
subject-matter  and  in  tone.  As  a  result  of  the  transfer  of 
rehgion  from  the  realm  of  external  authorit}'  to  that  of 
internal  experience,  the  pulpit  lays  greater  stress  upon 
those  truths  of  redemption  upon  which  the  spiritual  life 
depends.  In  so  far  as  modern  preaching  deals  with  this 
circle  of  truths,  it  is  committed  to  a  spiritual  quality.  It 
lays  stress  upon  the  spiritual  needs  of  men.  It  will  show 
men  what  God  has  done  for  them,  as  well  as  what  they 
must  do  for  themselves  and  for  other  men,  what  they  must 
receive  as  well  as  give.  It  points  to  the  soul's  dependence 
on  God,  and  to  fellowship  with  Him,  as  well  as  to  obedi- 
ence to  Him  in  the  discharge  of  the  practical  duties  of  life. 
Spiritual  preaching  presupposes  an  appropriation  by  the 
heart  and  it  is  this  that  is  regulative  for  mental  and  moral 
appropriation.  It  was  not  primarily  a  new  awaking  of 
mental  nor  of  moral  life  that  saved  the  modern  church. 
In  their  pride  of  reason  and  of  morality  at  the  beginning 
of  the  last  century,  men  were  the  despisers  of  rehgion,  and 
the  voice  that  was  most  persuasive  and  potent  in  calling 
them  back  to  better  paths  was  the  voice  of  rehgion.  It 
was  the  voice  that  rallied  them  to  a  new  consideration  of 
the  deep  and  urgent  wants  that  lie  hidden  in  the  recesses 
of  every  human  heart,  and  that  evoked  a  new  sense  of  it. 
The  modern  preacher  is  heir  to  this  great  awakening,  and 
if  true  to  its  meaning,  he  will  strive  to  nurture  the  sense 
of  spiritual  want  and  to  awaken  a  longing  for  a  higher  and 
fuller  life.  He  will  deal  with  those  truths  that  are  fitted 
to  awaken  and  to  satisfy  those  needs.  This  is  the  preach- 
ing that  harmonizes  with  the  needs  of  a   worshipping 


lOO  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

assembly,  and  seeks  to  further  its  interests.  If  the  preach- 
ing of  our  age  is  not  spiritual  in  its  substance  and  tone,  it 
is  false  to  its  inheritance. 

Preaching  that  is  strongly  experimental  will  also  be 
strongly  personal.  "We  beheve  and  therefore  speak." 
Such  preaching  has  the  personal  note.  The  best  modern 
preaching  has  this  note.  At  its  best  it  is  the  utterance  of 
exalted  feeUng.  Why  should  it  not  be?  The  preacher 
knows  that  he  brings  a  message  of  Hfe,  and  one  that  is 
as  fresh  to-day  as  ages  ago,^— a  perpetual  inspiration.  It 
comes  as  a  promise  of  victory.  It  Hfts  the  soul  into  the 
experience  of  triumph.  Its  earliest  and  its  latest,  its 
eternal,  note  is  the  note  of  redemption.  It  concerns  itself 
with  something  received,  not  something  done;  it  is  gift, 
not  exaction,  privilege,  not  obligation.  Religion  is  not 
"morahty  touched  with  emotion,"  but  feeling,  inspiring 
the  morahty  that  crowns  and  completes  it.  Christianity 
is  not  primarily  a  law  of  hfe,  but  a  gift  of  grace.  Rehgion 
does  not  begin,  it  ends  with  morality.  Take  from  Chris- 
tianity its  chief  characteristic,  a  new  gift  of  hfe,  and  you 
quench  its  inspiration.  If  we  define  rehgion  as  morahty 
touched  with  feehng,  we  have  yet  to  explain  the  source  and 
nature  of  the  feehng.  If  it  be  nothing  but  moral  feeling, 
we  have  added  nothing  to  our  definition  either  of  morahty 
or  of  rehgion.  If  the  feeling  be  rehgious,  we  have  still  to 
ask  its  source  and  nature.  Rehgion  does  not  begin  with 
the  sense  of  bondage  to  law,  but  with  the  freedom  of  in- 
spiration. It  is  a  peaceful  trust,  a  joyous  fellowship,  a 
prophetic  hope,  an  enthusiastic  loyalty.  "Ask  and  ye 
shall  receive,  that  your  joy  may  be  full. "  The  earhest 
note  of  the  Christian  hfe  was  the  note  of  hope  and  joy. 
It  was  a  song  of  triumph.  It  was  the  poetry  of  life,  and  in 
the  true  preacher  it  utters  itself  with  this  same  old  note  of 
joy  and  exultation.  It  knows  no  defeat  and  no  death. 
No  man  needs  such  elevation  of  soul  as  the  Christian 
preacher,  and  no  man  has  such  possibihties  of  it.     Chris- 


CHARACTERISTICS   OF  MODERxN   PREACHING       loi 

tianity  can  never  perish,  for  it  is  life  in  the  innermost  heart 
of  man.  A  ministry  of  the  spirit  that  giveth  Hfe  can  never 
faint  and  grow  weary  and  fail.  Christianity  as  the  gift 
of  life  is  the  only  power  that  can  save  this  world  from 
despair,  and  the  preacher's  message  is  the  only  one  that 
can  bring  joy  to  overworn  and  weary  men.  Many  mo- 
tives conspire  to  give  personal  force  to  the  preacher's 
message.  The  intellectual  motive  is  strong,  and  an  in- 
tellectual experience  of  the  power  of  the  truth  is  necessary 
to  his  equipment.  The  ethical  motive  is  urgent  in  the 
breast  of  any  manly  man,  and  no  preacher  adequately 
holds  the  truth  who  does  not  hold  it  in  moral  experience. 
The  aesthetic  motive  is  an  inspiration,  and  the  preacher 
needs  the  high  vision  of  the  ideal  glory  of  life,  of  the  Mas- 
ter of  life,  and  of  the  eternal  Kingdom  of  redemption.  But 
he  needs,  above  all,  the  uphft  of  a  great  inspiration  of  the 
heart,  like  that  of  Paul,  who  sang  out  his  redemptive  song 
in  the  midst  of  many  tribulations,  because  he  knew  the 
constraint  of  the  love  of  Christ.  If  the  preacher's  message 
lacks  the  note  of  personal  intensity,  it  is  because  it  lacks 
in  experimental  appropriation.  If  at  its  best  the  preach- 
ing of  our  day  bears  this  mark,  it  is  because  the  preacher 
accepts  the  truth  he  receives  as  a  message  and  identifies 
himself  with  it. 

II.  But  the  preaching  of  our  day  is  not  the  less  Biblical, 
but  rather  the  more,  that  it  is  experimental.  And  it  is 
both  Biblical  and  experimental  because  based  on  historic 
rehgion.  All  preachers,  of  whatever  school,  whether  so- 
called  liberal  or  evangelical,  get  into  immediate  connection 
with  Bibhcal  sources.  Whatever  the  preacher's  concep- 
tion of  the  Bible,  or  whatever  his  interpretation  of  Biblical 
truth,  whether  it  be  radical  or  conservative,  he  will  find 
some  point  of  attachment  for  his  discussion,  somewhere 
and  somehow,  in  these  sources.  There  is  less  straying 
into  extra-Bibhcal  fields  than  in  former  periods,  notwith- 
standing the  increasing  interest  in  other  than  the  Hebrew 


102  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

and  Christian  religions.  The  rchgion  of  our  day  is  his- 
toric, concrete,  experimental,  not  abstract,  theoretic,  or 
rationahstic.  The  historical  and  critical  movement  has 
secured  new  interest  for  the  Hebrew  and  Christian  Scrip- 
tures. In  Bibhcal  quahty  it  far  surpasses  the  preaching 
of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries.  The  deistic 
and  rationalistic  preaching  of  that  period,  dealing  as  we 
have  seen  with  an  abstract,  philosophical  rehgion,  the 
rehgion  of  nature,  attempted  to  subject  religion  to  intel- 
lectual and  ethical  experiment,  and  failed  in  its  attempt. 
It  lacked  a  historic  basis.  On  the  other  hand,  so-called 
orthodox  preaching  was  as  we  have  also  seen  based  chiefly 
on  the  theology  of  the  church.  It  was  largely  apologetic. 
The  object  of  this  theology  was  to  present  in  an  elaborate 
system,  that  called  itself  evangehcal,  "the  way  of  salva- 
tion." It  would  gather  all  the  saving  truths  of  Christianity 
into  this  scheme  of  doctrine.  The  orthodox  pulpit,  there- 
fore, must  concentrate  upon  those  doctrines  of  Chris- 
tianity that  were  regarded  as  central  and  fundamental. 
The  truths  with  which  it  dealt  were  few,  and  were  fur- 
nished, not  immediately  by  Scripture,  but  by  the  church 
creed.  Scripture  thus  became,  in  a  way,  subordinate  and 
was  used  for  the  sake  of  the  doctrine  discussed.  The 
result,  as  already  noted,  was  a  prevailingly  topical  type  of 
preaching  that  had  but  httle  use  for  texts.  It  was  the 
preacher's  task  to  bring  his  theme,  whatever  it  might  be, 
somehow  into  relation  with  the  great  central  truths  of 
salvation,  particularly  justification  by  faith,  so  that  no  one 
might  fail  of  the  requisite  indoctrination.  Every  sermon 
must  make  the  way  of  salvation  known  to  the  simplest 
and  most  unlearned  hearer.  Of  course  such  a  theory  of 
preaching  could  not  be  realized.  It  was  impossible  to 
adapt  the  specific  truth  discussed  to  the  whole  circle  of 
evangehcal  truth  without  a  process  of  twisting  that  be- 
came grotesque.  The  real  preacher  refused  to  attempt  so 
impossible  a  task,  and  this  type  of  preaching  was  of  course 


CHARACTERISTICS   OF   MODERxN  PREACHING     103 

not  universally  prevalent.  But  this  was  the  theory  of  that 
type  of  preaching  that  had  church  dogma  rather  than 
Scripture  for  its  basis.  But  the  preaching  of  our  day  is 
not  anchored  to  the  theology  of  the  church,  even  in  the 
most  extreme  confessional  schools.  Theology  itself  has 
been  modified.  It  is  less  -apologetic,  polemic,  dogmatic. 
Preaching  falls  into  hne  with  this  change.  It  deals  less 
with  formulated  doctrine.  It  compasses  a  wider  circle  of 
truths.  The  historic  movement,  that  has  rediscovered 
historic  Christianity,  has  given  the  pulpit  a  new  Bible, 
rich  in  homiletic  material.  Criticism  that  deals  destruc- 
tively with  church  dogma  and  has  not  yet  been  super- 
seded by  a  fully  successful  process  of  reconstruction  has 
proved  unfriendly  to  the  doctrinal  type  of  preaching. 
Church  doctrine  has  suffered  many  things  from  the  critical, 
agnostic,  naturahstic,  cosmopohtan,  and  practical  tenden- 
cies of  our  time.  But  with  all  its  evils,  this  critical  de- 
structiveness  does  not  involve  the  complete  disintegration  of 
Bibhcal  and  evangehcal  truth,  nor  the  complete  devitahza- 
tion  of  the  evangelical  spirit.  The  pulpit  has  fallen  back 
upon  the  original  Bibhcal  sources  of  historic  Christian  truth, 
as  interpreted,  vindicated,  and  verified  in  the  appropriations 
of  Christian  experience,  rather  than  as  fortified  by  the 
dogmatic  authority,  impHcit  or  exphcit,  of  the  church. 
Doubtless  there  is  need  of  more  doctrinal  preaching  of  the 
right  sort.  Preaching  should  deal  with  the  theology  of 
a  rational  and  ethical  Christian  experience,  and  one  that 
bears  the  marks  of  Christian  cathohcity,  as  well  as  with 
the  unformulated  theology  of  the  Bibhcal  records.  A  pulpit 
incapable  of  this  is  weak.  But  it  is  doubtless  true  that 
the  people  of  our  day  are  ready  for  a  type  of  preaching 
whose  subject-matter  is  prevaihngly  Bibhcal  and  historic, 
interpreted  and  illustrated  in  fresh,  concrete  forms.  Bib- 
lical theology  has  new  demands  upon  the  pulpit.  Advance 
in  any  branch  of  scientific  theology  demands  a  correspond- 
ing advance  in  its  practical  use  in  the  service  of  the  church. 


104  "^^^   MODERN   PULPIT 

There  is  demand  for  preaching  that  is  more  distinctively 
textual  and  expository,  or  at  least  that  avails  itself  more 
freely  of  Bibhcal  material.  The  topical  sermon  was  a 
product  of  secular  culture,  applied  to  the  work  of  preach- 
ing, and  has  been  overworked.  A  pulpit  use  of  the  Bible, 
commensurate  with  the  possible  popular  interest  in  it, 
with  our  better  knowledge  of  it,  with  our  more  concrete 
illustrative  method  of  preaching,  and  with  men's  rehgious 
needs,  is  in  process  of  development.  This  use  of  the  Bible, 
not  as  a  "codex  of  divine  legislation"  nor  as  a  storehouse 
of  proof  texts  for  heavenly  doctrines  merely,  but  as  a 
record  of  human  experiences  as  well  as  of  divine  reveal- 
ings,  a  great,  rich  body  of  sacred  hterature,  incomparable 
in  its  value  for  the  rehgious  hfe  of  men  —  this  will  make 
the  work  of  preaching  more  suggestive,  more  Hving,  more 
real  and  cogent. 

A  specific  phase  of  the  Bibhcal  is  the  Christological 
quaHty  of  the  preaching  of  our  day.  It  deals  largely  with 
the  person  and  work  of  Christ.  In  this  it  follows  the  course 
of  modern  religious  thought.  All  the  great  movements  of 
modern  thought — philosophical,  historical,  critical,  hterary, 
rehgious — have  combined  to  bring  us  back  to  historic  Chris- 
tianity and  to  the  historic  Christ.  Rehgion  and  theology 
are  anchored  there.  Not  that  they  had  ever  wholly  aban- 
doned Christ,  but  they  have  come  back  to  a  Christ  who  has 
new  significance  for  the  thought  and  Hfe  of  the  world. 
The  church  has  been  led  away  from  the  "simpUcity  that 
is  in  Christ,"  has  created  for  itself  a  speculative  Christ, 
who  became  almost  an  abstraction  of  thought.  The 
Christ  of  theology  was  not  in  many  respects  the  Christ  of 
the  historic  records.  The  spiritual  vision  of  the  church 
indeed  has  ever  discerned  Him  beneath  whatever  forms  of 
its  creative  thought,  or  whatever  relative  formlessness  of 
abstract  concepdon,  and  its  loyal  heart  has  never  wholly 
failed  to  be  true  to  Him.  But  the  Christology  of  our  day 
has  a  historic  and  not  an  abstract  or  speculative  basis. 


CHARACTERISTICS    OF   MODERN   PREACHING       105 

In  passing  from  the  realm  of  dogmatic  authority  to  the 
realm    of    Christian    experience,    theology    has    brought 
preaching  back  to  a  more  distinctively  Christian  circle  of 
ideas.     There  is  less  by-play,   less   straying  into   extra- 
Christian  fields.     The  Old  Testament,  although  copiously 
and  suggestively  and   more   legitimately  used,  is  not  so 
largely  and  so  indiscriminately  used.     The  truths  of  re- 
demptive reUgion,  variously  interpreted  indeed,  are  kept 
at  the  front.     The  personal  relation  of  the  disciple  to 
Christ  is  much  insisted  upon.     Fellowship  with  Him,  and 
conformity  to  His  mind,  enter  largely  into  our  conception 
of  the  Christian  Hfe.     Christ  is  presented,  not  only  as  the 
historic  ideal  of  all  complete  rehgious  character,  but  as  the 
energizing  moral  and  spiritual  force  of  the  world.     Under 
the  Christological  influence,  rationalism  has  been  greatly 
modified.      It  has  enlarged  its  scope.     The  term  "  reason," 
which  once  played  so  important  a  part  in  rehgious  thought, 
gives  place  to  the  "Christian  consciousness,"  which  in- 
cludes not  only  rational  experience  but  other  forms  of 
experience  as  well,  the  ground  of  which  is  acknowledged 
by  all  reputable  Christian  thinkers  of  whatever  school  to 
be  the  historic  Christ.     As  coming  into  closer  touch  with 
the  person  of  Christ,  and  catching  the  inspiration  of  His 
life,  modern  preaching  is  less  one-sidedly  intellectual  and 
speculative  and  abstract.     It  is  more  emotional  and  sym- 
pathetic, although  not  the  less  thoughtful  when  at  its  best. 
It  is  also  more  concrete  and  varied  in  its  scope.     The 
preacher  deals  with  manifold  phases  of  Christ's  earthly 
manifestation,  and  the  Christianity  it  presents  is,  there- 
fore,  more   comprehensive.     The  dogmatic   method   has 
limited  itseK  too  exclusively  to  a  single  phase  of  Chris- 
tianity, or  to  only  a  few  of  its  varied  aspects.     The  Bibhcai 
method  concerns  itself  with  all  phases  of  it  that  emerge 
in  the  records.     Doubtless  it  was  a  sound  rehgious  instinct 
that  led  the  church  to  anchor  to  the  Pauhne  Christology, 
and  the  church  will  continue  to  return  to  Christ  through 


I06  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

Paul.  But  other  forms  of  Christ's  complex  manifestation 
have  been  obscured  and  other  types  of  doctrine  have  been 
neglected.  As  a  result  of  the  above-mentioned  change 
preaching  has  given  the  M^orld  a  broader  Christianity,  and 
the  whole  Christ  has  been  more  adequately  presented. 

III.  The  preaching  of  our  day  is  critical  and  discriminat- 
ing in  its  character.  No  age,  perhaps,  has  surpassed  the 
present  in  the  amount  of  its  intellectual  activity,  in  the  per- 
vasiveness of  its  critical  spirit,  and  in  the  variety  of  its 
objects.  It  is  an  amazingly  nimble,  if  not  a  very  profound, 
activity.  It  is  an  age  of  intellectual  emancipation,  in  which 
nothing  that  is  old  remains  sacred,  or  is  to  be  sentimentally 
cherished  just  because  it  is  old.  In  this  restless  hunger 
for  new  knowledge,  this  eager  search  for  the  bottom  of 
things,  everything  is  torn  to  pieces.  We  must  get  on 
without  assumptions.  Dogmatism  is  discredited.  Theory 
waits  reverently  upon  facts.  Nothing  can  be  known  that 
is  not  known  inductively  and  historically.  Scholarship 
hngers  in  the  domain  of  phenomena.  Agnosticism  is  the 
ally  of  criticism.  The  critical  process  abides  with  its 
analysis  and  Hngers  long  with  the  elements  of  its  investi- 
gation. It  demohshes  ill  or  inadequately  based  theories, 
and  alHes  itself  with  no  corresponding  process  of  construc- 
tion. And  this  involves  in  itself  that  suspense  of  judg- 
ment which  we  call  agnosticism.  Whatever  be  the  result, 
good  or  bad,  and  it  is  both,  it  is  inevitable  that  the  preaching 
of  our  day  should  be  influenced  by  this  critical  and  agnostic 
spirit.  An  unfavorable  result  is  a  certain  lack  of  positive- 
ness.  It  has  been  too  largely  negative  and  destructive. 
Much  effort  has  been  wasted  in  the  tearing-down  process. 
Instead  of  interpreting  the  inner  truth  that  lies  back  of  the 
traditional  teaching  of  the  church,  getting  at  the  heart  of 
it,  holding  the  continuity  of  Christian  thought,  and  saving 
the  church  from  schism,  such  preaching  has  cultivated  a 
polemical  temper,  forced  divisions,  proved  tributary  to  the 
multiplication  of  sects  and  detrimental  to  spiritual  pros- 


CHARACTERISTICS   OF   MODERN    PREACHING     107 

perity.  Dealing  too  exclusively  with  the  forms  of  thought, 
it  has  shown  itself  to  be  shallow  and  has  left  the  people 
without  a  positive  faith.  There  are  evidences  of  return 
to  a  better  mind  and  method,  but  there  is  still  a  note  of 
uncertainty,  a  lack  of  assurance,  of  definiteness  of  concep- 
tion, of  force  of  conviction,  and  consequently  of  cogency 
of  persuasion,  in  much  of  the  preaching  in  our  Protestant 
churches.  The  processes  and  results  of  criticism  are  of 
J  course  at  the  preacher's  disposal,  and  he  must  not,  and 

should  not,  be  denied  them,  any  more  than  he  should  be 
denied  the  processes  and  results  of  speculation,  for  all  this 
is  necessary  to  rational  and  fruitful  preaching.  But  criti- 
cism and  speculation  have  no  place  in  the  pulpit  if  they 
cannot  strengthen  the  faith  of  the  people.  It  is  the  func- 
tion of  the  preacher  to  build  up,  not  to  tear  down.  The 
tearing  down  process  goes  on  with  sufficient  vigor  outside 
the  church.     The  preacher  is  summoned  to  withstand  it. 

The  Biblical  quality  of  the  preaching  of  our  day  should 
be  tributary  to  positive  and  constructive  doctrinal  methods 
and  results.  It  is  true,  indeed,  that  Biblical  criticism 
may  have  an  opposite  result.  Bibhcal  preaching  may 
lack  a  certain  anchorage  ground,  in  fundamental  philo- 
sophical and  theological  conceptions  of  Christianity,  and 
may  become  doctrinally  vague.  It  is  notably  true  that 
the  more  fundamental  the  preacher's  conceptions,  the 
more  positive  and  fruitful  his  preaching  is  likely  to  be. 
What  preachers  need  is  a  firmer  philosophical  and  theo- 
logical grasp  of  truth  to  steady  them  in  the  demolitions  of 
their  critical  processes.  But  it  is  true  that  those  preachers 
who  share  most  worthily  the  Biblical  spirit,  and  are  dom- 
inated by  its  concrete  and  realistic  methods  are  in- 
creasingly constructive  and  edifying. 

The  tolerant  cathohc  quality  of  our  preaching  should 
also  be  tributary  to  positiveness  and  fruitfulness,  for  it 
summons  the  preacher  to  concentrate  upon  the  great 
primary  and  universal  truths  and  facts  of  Christianity. 


I08  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

This  very  catholicity  and  tolerance,  indeed,  may  tend  to 
vagueness  and  indefiniteness  and  even  to  laxity  and  lati- 
tudinarianism,  and  this  may  the  more  urgently  accentu- 
ate the  demand  that  the  preacher  rally  himself  to  greater 
definiteness  of  conception  and  strength  of  conviction,  in 
order  to  secure  positiveness  and  definiteness  of  impression. 
But  the  true  cathohcity  that  is  tolerant  with  respect  to  what 
is  secondary  and  supremely  loyal  to  what  is  central  and 
primary  is  a  condition  of  positiveness.  And  it  is  precisely 
this  positiveness  of  Christian  cathohcity  that  is  demanded 
to-day.  In  an  age  of  criticism,  positiveness  of  belief  and 
conviction  is  possible  for  intelhgent  men  only  as  they  con- 
centrate upon  what  is  fundamental,  essential,  and  univer- 
sal. Men  are  sure  to  differ  on  what  is  secondary.  We  get 
not  only  approximate  harmony,  but  concentration  and  posi- 
tiveness by  ignoring  what  is  secondary.  It  is  the  secondary 
that  is  divisive. 

But  something  more  than  a  broad  BibHcal  and  catholic 
basis  is  needed.  There  is  demanded,  as  just  intimated,  a 
basis  of  rational  conviction.  The  truth  must  become  a 
definite  mental  possession,  else  it  cannot  be  definitely  and 
positively  preached.  One  may  teach  after  a  fashion,  may 
attempt  to  interpret  and  after  a  fashion  succeed  in  giving 
an  intelligible  account  of  what  is  given  by  external  au- 
thority, without  intellectually  domesticating  the  teaching. 
It  may  still  remain  a  mystery  with  which  one's  reason  has 
no  commerce.  But  one  cannot  preach  it  on  that  wise. 
Positiveness  has  an  intellectual  basis,  and  without  such 
basis  preaching  will  not  be  permanently  effective.  The 
tendency  of  our  time  is  toward  a  rational  appropriation  of 
the  truth.  External  authority  must  find  an  echo  in  the 
intelKgence  of  men.  In  so  far  forth  it  is  tributary  to  the 
positiveness  of  the  preacher's  message. 

But  in  a  critical  age  the  demand  for  moral  and  spiritual 
conviction  is  still  stronger.  Preaching  indeed  rests  upon 
truth  that  is  given.     It  is  not  a  purely  subjective  product. 


CHARACTERISTICS   OF   MODERN   PREACHING 


109 


But  such  objective  truth  is  valueless  without  appropria- 
tion in  moral  and  spiritual  conviction.  It  is  not  a  book 
but  a  man  that  speaks.  It  is  not  the  fragment  of  a  man, 
not  the  topmost  part  and  crown  of  him  if  you  will,  but  the 
man  in  the  totahty  and  unity  of  his  life.  Preaching  is  not 
the  emptying  of  the  contents  of  the  garret  of  the  mind. 
It  is  the  utterance  of  what  is  deepest  and  most  vital  in 
the  man.  It  is  not  telUng  what  some  one  said  ages  ago, 
but  the  testimony  of  what  the  preacher  sees  and  feels  of 
the  reahty  and  power  of  what  was  said.  It  involves  not 
only  an  experience  of  rehgion  but  of  religious  truth.  Hence 
the  need  of  anchoring  the  soul  to  it.  Such  truth  is  trans- 
muted into  hfe,  and  is  interpreted  in  experience.  There 
are  truths,  doubtless,  that  cannot  thus  be  verified.  But  it 
is  questionable,  as  already  suggested,  if  any  truth  that  has 
significance  for  the  rehgious  Hfe  is  not  thus  verifiable.  Now 
it  is  the  man  who  takes  into  the  content  of  his  own  experi- 
ence these  dominating  truths  that  will  be  a  definite  and 
positive  preacher.  The  experimental  element  in  our 
preaching  thus  becomes  a  positive  element. 

One  of  the  most  favorable  results  of  the  critical  and 
discriminating  quaUty  of  modern  preaching  is  its  realism. 
It  is  more  thorough  than  the  preaching  of  former  periods 
in  its  adherence  to  what  is  known,  and  is  less  inchned  to 
theorize  and  speculate.  It  is  more  cautious  and  con- 
scientious in  its  verifications.  It  uses  Scripture  texts  more 
carefully.  It  will  know  first  of  all  the  historic  sense. 
Texts,  indeed,  are  used  suggestively  and  this  becomes 
tributary  to  a  rhetorically  impressive  and  nonelaborate 
type  of  preaching.  But  the  critical  regulates  the  rhetorical 
tendency.  As  a  result  the  sermon  is  hkely  to  have  a  sound 
didactic  basis  at  the  same  time  that  it  is  attractive  and 
persuasive.  The  accommodating  use  of  texts  is  recognized 
as  such,  and  the  reputable  modem  preacher  will  not  alle- 
gorize his  text.  That  is,  he  will  not  confound  the  historical 
with  the  rhetorical  use,  and  will  not  substitute  the  one  for 


no  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

the  other.  He  is  especially  cautious  in  his  use  of  proof 
texts,  and  in  any  use  of  Scripture  that  is  to  furnish  a  basis 
for  didactic  preaching.  The  uncritical  and  undiscrimi- 
nating  use  of  Scripture  has  no  place  in  preaching  that  bears 
the  modern  spirit.  This  critical  reaMsm  discloses  itself  in 
the  preacher's  deaHng  with  the  facts  of  historical  Chris- 
tianity. These  facts  have  increasing  importance  for  the 
preacher's  work.  Historic  criticism  has  furnished  a  moi^ 
realistic  conception  of  revelation  and  inspiration.  God 
is  not  a  remote  abstraction,  but  a  historical  reahty,  emerg- 
ing into  manifestation  in  the  whole  course  of  historic  de- 
velopment, which  crowns  itself  in  Christ.  Christianity  is 
not  primarily  a  revelation  of  truth,  but  of  life,  not  a  set  of 
ideas  about  God  in  which  men  must  be  indoctrinated,  and 
which  they  must  mentally  appropriate  as  the  condition  of 
salvation,  but  a  manifestation  of  God  in  Christ,  who  is  to 
be  approached  in  an  act  of  ethical  and  spiritual  faith. 
God  is  not  a  remote,  exti'a-world  reality,  but  an  abiding 
presence  in  humanity,  giving  new  significance  to  all  human 
life.  And  this  critical  realism  is  seen  in  the  preacher's 
treatment  of  the  person  of  Christ.  Christ  in  the  different 
aspects  of  his  personal  and  official  character,  as  made 
more  fully  knowoi  by  historic  criticism,  is  more  compre- 
hensively presented  to  the  world.  The  importance  of 
Christ's  personal,  historic  character  is  more  fully  recog- 
nized, and  more  fully  accentuated,  and  this  is  one  of  the 
reahstic  notes  of  modern  pulpit  apologetics.  The  hu- 
manity of  Christ,  as  distinguished  from  speculative  con- 
ceptions of  his  divinity,  and  of  his  ontological  relations 
with  God,  is  more  fully  dealt  with.  It  was  one  of  the 
regulative  principles  of  Frederick  Robertson's  preaching, 
that  "behef  in  the  humanity  of  Christ  must  be  antecedent 
to  behef  in  His  divinity."  In  this  he  interprets  and  furthers 
a  reahstic  tendency  of  thought  that  is  one  of  the  products 
of  modern  philosophic  and  historic  culture.  Soteriology, 
as  well  as  Theology,  Bibhology,  and  Christology,  bears  the 


CHARACTERISTICS   OF   MODERN   PREACHING      m 

mark  of  this  critical  realism.  Preaching  is  critical  with 
respect  to  theories  that  have  gathered  about  the  facts  of 
Christ's  redemptive  w^ork.  But  it  does  not  fail  to  deal 
with  these  facts  themselves,  nor  to  interpret  their  practical 
significance  for  the  Christian  life.  The  modern  preacher 
may  have  found  some  of  the  church  theories  of  the  atone- 
ment unpreachable,  and  he  may  have  abandoned  them. 
But  he  has  not  necessarily  lost  all  connection  with  the  fact 
of  the  atonement,  although  he  may  have  found  no  adequate 
theory  for  the  fact,  nor  does  he  fail  to  grasp  in  worthy 
measure  the  practical  significance  of  the  sacrificial  death 
of  Christ.  The  man  ward  side  of  reconcihation  is  more 
prominent  than  the  divine  side,  even  in  the  preaching  of 
those  who  hold  the  traditional  theory  of  reconciliation. 
The  Christian  year  which  brings  the  great  facts  of  historic 
Christianity  into  the  pulpit  is  more  fully  recognized  by  all 
Christian  churches.  The  entire  earthly  Hfe  of  Christ  has 
furnished  a  most  interesting  species  of  modem  Christian 
literature.  Various  scenes,  events,  facts,  connected  with 
his  Hfe,  as  well  as  discourses  taken  in  their  historic  con- 
nection, treated  in  an  expository,  applicatory,  and  rhetori- 
cally suggestive  manner,  have  become  frequent  themes  for 
pulpit  discourse.  In  a  word,  historic  criticism  has  brought 
us  back  to  the  person  and  Hfe  of  Christ,  and  the  preacher 
is  wilHng  that  speculative  theory  should  wait  upon  fact. 
And  as  further  involved  in  all  this,  we  find  the  dominance 
of  the  ethical  as  distinguished  from  the  dogmatic  aspect 
of  Christianity.  For  this  reason  the  modem  pulpit  deals 
very  largely  with  Christ  as  a  new  moral  force  in  the  human 
race,  as  a  vital  race-regenerating  agency,  as  a  renewing  and 
sanctifying  power  within  us,  rather  than  as  an  objective 
ground  of  forensic  justification  and  reconcihation  for  us. 
Whatever  may  be  said  about  the  adequacy  of  this  presenta- 
tion of  Christ  as  a  moral  force,  and  it  may  be  questioned 
whether  it  does  full  justice  to  Christianity  as  a  revelation  > 
of  the  character  of  God,  it  nevertheless  has  its  justification 


112  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

in  the  practical  needs  of  men,  and  in  its  harmony  with  the 
development  of  historic  Christianity. 

The  method  of  treating  eschatological  questions  is 
another  result  of  theological  criticism  and  is  essentially  a 
reahstic  method.  The  preacher  lays  stress  upon  the 
serious  reality  of  Hfe,  as  well  as  upon  the  solemn  reahty  of 
death,  upon  the  importance  of  the  hfe  that  now  is  for  its 
own  sake  as  related  to  personal  character  and  achievement, 
as  well  as  on  account  of  its  relation  to  the  hfe  that  is  to 
come.  Character  is  a  development  and  death  an  incident, 
which,  however  solemn  in  its  moral  significance,  is  not 
magical  in  its  effects,  but  only  leaves  the  soul  just  where  it 
finds  it.  Punishment  is  the  action  of  forces  laid  deep  in 
the  being,  and  is  self  evolved,  beginning  here  and  now, 
with  ethical  and  judicial  significance,  and  going  on  as  long 
as  the  energies  of  the  soul  are  untouched  by  the  powers  of 
redemption.  All  this  is  a  disclosure  of  the  moral  character 
of  God.  But  punishment  is  not  an  infliction  laid  on  from 
without  by  God,  with  ethical  and  judicial  significance 
only  after  mortal  hfe  has  ended.  In  a  word,  man's  rela- 
tion to  the  future  is  conceived  and  presented  reahstically 
in  terms  of  law  and  of  experience,  not  speculatively,  or  in 
terms  of  imaginative  representation.  Modem  thought  has, 
in  many  ways,  dealt  destructively  with  the  solemn  reahties 
of  the  moral  world.  It  is  easily  possible  that  the  preacher 
may  treat  man's  relation  to  the  future  too  hghtly,  and  that 
"the  powers  of  the  world  to  come,"  "the  power  of  an  end- 
less Ufe,"  may  be  too  much  lost  sight  of.  All  this  may 
involve  a  superficial  sense  of  sin,  which  is  a  defect  of 
modern  hfe,  as  it  is  of  modem  preaching.  But  it  also 
discloses  a  genuine  spirit  of  Christian  reahsm  that  is 
critical  and  discriminating  and  cautious  in  its  deahng  with 
the  serious  reahties  of  our  moral  hfe. 

IV.  But  the  most  obtrusive  characteristic  of  the  preach- 
ing of  our  day  is,  perhaps,  its  practical  quahty.  This  has 
already  been  touched  upon  in  other  relations,  but  demands 


CHARACTERISTICS   OF   MODERN    PREACHING      113 

more  specific  discussion.  It  is  a  commonplace  that  the 
age  is  characteristically  one  of  action  rather  than  of  re- 
flection. There  is  a  great  amount  of  intellectual  acti\ity 
and  it  is  very  intense,  but  it  is  turned  into  the  channels  of 
practical  Hfe.  Men  are  after  the  available.  Their  think- 
ing is  not  esoteric  and  speculative.  They  do  not  Hnger  in 
the  realm  of  abstraction.  They  push  for  immediate  and 
tangible  results  and  are  impatient  of  the  slow  and  dignified 
processes  of  former  days.  Science  cannot  wait  till  it  is 
appropriated  by  the  educated  world,  and  is  not  left  to 
work  out  its  slow  results.  It  is  interpreted  in  the  language 
of  the  people,  brought  to  common  apprehension,  and  put  at 
once  to  practical  use.  The  thinker  becomes  an  advocate 
and  aims  at  influencing  the  opinions  and  actions  of  his 
fellows.  The  investigator  becomes  the  apologist.  Edu- 
cation aims  at  practical  ends.  Men  must  be  rushed  into 
the  work  of  hfe,  and  no  time  is  to  be  lost  in  dawdUng  over 
old  mediaeval  humanities.  The  scientific  hard  presses  the 
humanistic  ideal  of  culture.  Every  man  has  his  sphere  in 
the  busy,  busthng  world.  This  is  the  measure  of  his 
value  and  he  must  be  trained  for  it.  The  technical  school 
pushes  to  the  front  and  the  college  and  university  are  in 
close  contact  with  life.  The  demands  of  a  life  of  material 
success  test  the  worth  of  the  educational  ideal.  Young 
blood  is  in  demand.  There  is  no  surplus  respect  for  tra- 
dition or  convention  or  custom.  Theology  is  pushed  out 
into  practical  Hfe.  It  must  be  workable  and  easily  trans- 
lated into  popular  speech.  In  the  church  there  is  a  new 
field  for  active  leadership,  and  for  men  of  executive  force 
who  can  organize  and  bring  things  to  pass.  This  influence 
powerfully  affects  the  pulpit,  especially  in  a  democratic 
country,  and  wherever  the  democratic  spirit  has  gotten  a 
strong  hold.  In  much  it  is  a  favorable  result.  Practi- 
cal preaching  in  the  good  sense  is  simply  preaching 
that  is  adjusted  to  the  real  needs  of  men  in  a  living 
world. 


114  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

The  concrete,  rhetorically  didactic,  and  persuasive  quality 
of  the  preaching  of  our  time  bears  the  mark  of  this  prac- 
tical spirit.  The  preacher  indeed  must  speak  to  the  mind, 
but  he  must  avoid  the  realm  of  abstract  thought.  He  must 
speak  through  the  imagination  to  secure  an  emotional  in- 
terest in  order  that  he  may  secure  a  practical  interest  in  the 
truth.  The  modern  preacher  has  learned  that  logic  ii  not 
the  only  instrument  for  defending  the  truth,  or  the  only 
agency  for  interpreting  it.  Christianity  may  be  made  to 
appear  reasonable,  without  an  elaborate  process  of  argu- 
ment. A  positive,  declarative,  illustrative  utterance  of  truth 
that  tests  itself  in  experience,  that  rehes  upon  the  common 
sense  of  men,  and  upon  the  moral  and  rehgious  judgment, 
is  better  than  personal  attack  on  error.  It  is  not  the  preach- 
er's aim  to  deposit  the  truth  as  a  formal  and  regulative 
possession  in  the  understanding,  but  as  a  moral  and 
spiritual  possession,  that  it  may  become  the  more  truly 
and  fully  a  personal  possession  and  so  reproduce  itself  in 
practical  life.  This  habitual  appeal  to  experience,  to 
moral  sense  and  conviction,  to  the  native  instincts  of  the 
human  heart,  in  a  word  to  what  is  human  and  common  in 
men,  illustrates  the  practical  character  of  our  preaching 
and  is  surely  a  return  in  some  sort  to  the  original  type. 
The  nonpolemical  quality  of  it  is  also,  as  just  intimated, 
in  part  the  result  of  its  practical  spirit.  The  sectarian 
spirit  has  diminished.  It  cannot  thrive  in  an  atmosphere 
of  Christian  common  sense.  The  Christianity  of  our  day 
has  called  a  halt  to  the  partisan  polemist.  The  broad 
churchman  is  having  his  day.  Large-minded  and  large- 
hearted  men,  upon  whom  the  church  must  rely  to  perpetu- 
ate Christian  institutions,  demand  a  type  of  preaching  that 
shall  look  towards  the  establishment  of  a  more  cathoHc 
Christianity  and  the  reahzation  of  a  more  complete 
Christian  union.  The  best  preaching  of  our  day,  there- 
'  fore,  because  it  is  practical,  has  the  note  of  catholicity.  It 
strikes  for  the  central  truths,  truths  that  are  most  com- 


CHARACTERISTICS   OF   MODERN   PREACHING      115 

manding  and  most  fully  regulative  of  the  unity  and  effec- 
tiveness of  the  church. 

The  problems  of  social  ethics  have  opened  a  broad  field 
for  the  modern  pulpit,  and  it  has  taken  possession  of  it  as 
its  own  province.     It  is  in  alliance  with  all  sane  movements 
for  the  estabUshment  of  a  better  social  order.     Preaching, 
of  course,  is  grounded  in  religion  and  should  be  spiritual 
in  tone  and  aim.     Thus  only  will  it  be  the  more  genuinely 
practical.     Religion  is  the  basis  of  the  morality  with  which 
the  pulpit  deals ;  it  is  the  revelation  of  the  grace  of  God 
that  inspires  and  directs  all  noblest  moral  impulse  and 
conditions    the    fullest    reahzation    of    moral    obligation. 
Religion  includes  morality,  and  a  complete  morahty  pre- 
supposes religion.     They  may  of  course  be  differentiated 
in  thought,  and  each  may  be  conceived  as  having  a  sphere 
of  its  own.     As  rehgious,  the  Christian  hfe  centres  in  the 
realm  of  the  invisible  and  ideal;   as  ethical,  it  centres  in 
the  visible  and  practical.     As  religious,  it  looks  Godward 
and  Christ  ward,  and  realizes  itself  in  the  invisible  per- 
sonal relation  of  dependence,  subjection,  and  fellowship; 
as  ethical,  it  look§  manward  and  reahzes  itself  in  the  con- 
crete relations  and  activities  of  human  life.     As  religious, 
it  appropriates  the  content  of  redemptive  revelation;    as 
ethical,  it  fulfils  in  forms  of  duty  the  royal  law  of  love, 
which  becomes  the  law  of  liberty,  and  is  productive  of 
Christian  virtue,  which  develops  itself  distributively  in  the 
virtuous    acts    of    life.      But    although   differentiable    in 
thought,  they  may  not  be  divorced  in  practical  experience, 
and  least  of  all  in  the  preacher's  work.     It  has  been  the 
boast  of  some  of  our  modern  churches,  modern  in  time 
but  not  in  spirit,  that  they  do  not  meddle  with  the  great 
moral  questions  of  the  day,  and  it  has  been  claimed  that 
they  are  more  prosperous  materially  and  spiritually  on  this 
account.     But  that  must  always  be  a  delusive  prosperity  in 
which  fidelity  to  the  great  moral  interests  of  mankind  are 
compromised.     On  the  other  hand,  if  other  churches  of 


Il6  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

our  day  have  converted  themselves  into  ethical  clubs  and 
their  ministers  have  masqueraded  as  political  economists, 
or  dabblers  in  social  and  political  problems,  this  is  only 
another  extreme,  and  cannot  be  accepted  as  normal.  The 
preacher  who  has  no  voice  for  the  great  moral  problems 
that  touch  the  very  heart  of  our  social  and  poHtical  hfe 
is  disloyal  to  his  trust,  and  will  and  should  fail  in  influence 
with  men.  Especially  in  a  democratic  age  and  nation 
the  pulpit  will  and  should  touch  every  sphere  of  human 
life.  In  practical  working  relations  with  all  classes  of 
men,  all  branches  of  human  industry,  all  varieties  of  human 
interests,  stands  this  representative  of  a  practical  rehgion, 
and  of  a  Hving  church,  and  all  men  have  some  sort  of  claim 
upon  him.  The  world  demands,  and  has  the  right  to 
demand,  that  he  represent  an  ethical  rehgion,  and  he  who 
knows  his  calling  will  respond  to  the  demand.  That  the 
church  and  ministry  of  our  time  are  measurably  re- 
sponsive to  this  demand  is  evidence  of  their  practical  aim. 
With  this  is  closely  aUied,  as  in  fact  a  part  of  it,  the  phil- 
anthropic or  humanitarian  quaUty.  It  would  be  strange 
indeed  if  the  sentiment  of  humanity,  both  in  its  secular 
and  rehgious  aspects,  which  is  so  notable  a  characteristic 
of  our  time,  should  not  powerfully  influence  the  church 
and  powerfully  appeal  to  the  pulpit.  There  is  a  good  deal 
of  what  may  be  called  secular  philanthropy.  It  is  ulti- 
mately Christian  in  its  source,  but  it  is  not  altogether 
Christian  in  its  spirit,  methods,  and  aims.  It  is  possible 
that  the  church  and  ministry  may  be  dominated  to  a  con- 
siderable extent  by  it,  and  the  preacher  may  be  deluded  by 
the  semblance  of  what  is  Christian.  Such  failure  to  dis- 
criminate will  result  disastrously  to  the  church.  But  it  is 
doubtless  true  that  the  philanthropy  of  the  church  and 
pulpit  is  prevaiHngly  Christian.  Christ  is  the  inspiration 
of  it.  The  modem  pulpit  is  a  missionary  pulpit.  The 
race  significance  of  Christianity  is  a  rediscover}'.  The 
sentiment  of  pity  is  richly  developed.     The  preacher  has 


CHARACTERISTICS   OF   MODERN   PREACHING 


117 


abandoned  the  tone  of  harshness  in  which  the  guilt  of  sin 
was  once  denounced.  He  deals  less  copiously  with  the 
motive  of  fear,  and  honors  the  profounder  and  more  truly 
human  motives  of  aspiration  and  gratitude  and  self-respect 
and  moral  obligation  and  sympathy  with  needy  men,  and 
it  is  this  spirit  of  humanity  that  makes  modern  preaching 
more  persuasive. 

This  practical  character  in  which  preaching  adapts 
itself  to  the  complex  Ufe  of  the  modern  world  has,  as 
already  suggested,  greatly  enlarged  its  scope.  It  handles 
a  greater  variety  of  subjects  than  the  preaching  of  any 
previous  age,  and  the  farther  out  into  human  Ufe  it  reaches, 
the  more  manifold  and  multiform  it  becomes.  The  change 
from  the  dogmatic  and  ecclesiastical  to  the  ethical  and 
humanistic  point  of  view  is  in  this  regard  a  most  produc- 
tive change.  The  themes  of  an  abstract  church  theology 
are  relatively  few.  The  themes  that  touch  the  practical 
moral  hfe  of  man  are  as  diversified  as  human  existence 
itself.  We  have  seen  that  the  practical  spirit  and  aim  of 
modem  preaching  have  been  attended  with  favorable 
results.  It  may  be  claimed  that  in  so  far  as  the  activity 
of  the  -age  has  been  beneficent  in  its  character,  in  so  far 
its  preaching  has  been  beneficent.  But  there  is  another 
side.  The  activity  of  the  age  has  an  unfavorable  aspect. 
It  is  in  much  an  age  of  self-assertion,  of  seK-indulgence,  of 
selfish  greed,  of  arrogance,  of  empty  show,  of  reckless 
waste,  of  dishonesty  and  dishonor,  and  of  brute  force.  It 
is  an  age  of  high-wrought  animal  emotions,  not  of  lofty 
enthusiasm.  It  is  enterprising,  not  reflective;  aggressive, 
not  receptive ;  self-righteous,  not  humble  or  docile.  Even 
its  philanthropy  is  to  a  considerable  extent  fussy  and 
professional.  It  is  conscious  of  its  mission,  not  of  its  pro- 
bation. The  passive  virtues  are  discredited.  There  is 
defective  sense  of  sin,  and  but  little  deep  sense  of  want. 
It  is  the  masculine  age ;  with  all  its  democracy,  an  age  of 
blood  and  iron.     Its  conquests  are  the  conquests  of  will, 


Il8  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

and  too  little  of  reason  and  of  moral  conviction.  Men 
fancy  they  can  work  out  their  own  life  problem,  and  are 
not  dominated  by  the  highest  and  noblest  ideals.  They 
are  not  enthusiastically  chivalrous.  They  are  not  hfted 
into  the  heights  of  noble  feehng  as  their  fathers  were. 
There  is  courage  enough  of  a  sort,  but  there  is  too  httle 
moral  courage.  It  is  a  prudential  courage  that  will  not 
waste  life  in  impracticable  self-sacrifice.  It  is  a  time  of 
facile  moral  adjustments.  Men  do  not  propose  to  be  at 
cross  purpose  with  the  world.  They  have  but  one  life 
to  hve  and  they  must  make  the  most  and  the  best  of  that, 
and  the  most  and  the  best  are  found  in  the  realm  of  ma- 
terial success.  It  is  the  artisan  age.  The  "great  Lord  of 
shoddy  adulteration  and  malfeasance"  bears  sway,  and 
things  are  done  with  "the  maximum  of  slimness,  swiftness, 
and  mendacity."  The  machine  and  the  boss  have  firm 
grip  upon  the  poHtical  community.  The  political  idealist 
and  reformer  is  an  object  of  contempt.  Recognition  of 
the  opinions  and  moral  sentiments  and  judgments  of 
high-minded  citizens  is,  at  best,  a  "pandering"  of  necessity. 
Government  is  in  alliance  with  a  corrupt  commercial  hfe, 
and  we  are  coming  back  to  the  reign  of  brute  force.  Pa- 
triots who  would  exalt  the  ideals  of  the  fathers,  hold  the 
government  to  the  traditions  of  a  better  day,  and  reverse 
the  policy  of  jingo  agitators  are  traitors.  The  century 
that  opened  with  a  great  outcry  and  outreach  of  Christian 
philanthropy,  and  gave  new  hope  for  strugghng  humanity, 
has  closed  upon  us  with  open  advocacy  or  defence  of  the 
brutal  doctrine  of  force.  That  the  Christian  pulpit  should 
be  influenced  by  all  this  is  not  strange.  In  practical  aim 
and  general  ethical  purpose,  in  rhetorical  effectiveness  and 
range  of  discussion,  and  in  many  other  respects  there  is 
great  gain.  But  it  may  be  questioned  whether  there  is 
not  serious  defect  in  evangelistic  fervor  and  in  moral  in- 
tensity, a  defect  of  purpose  so  to  present  the  claims  of 
religion  and  morality  as  strongly  to  impress  the  individual 


CHARACTERISTICS   OF   MODERN   PREACHING       119 

conscience,  and  secure  the  conscious  allegiance  of  the 
individual  will.  In  this  respect  the  preaching  of  other 
days  was  far  more  effective.  To  meet  the  moral  degra- 
dation of  our  time  the  truth  should  be  crowded  upon  the 
conscience.  The  pulpit  should  handle  with  strong  feeling 
and  urgent  purpose  the  great  saving  truths  and  facts  and 
the  great  moral  forces  of  our  rehgion,  with  reference  to 
moral  and  spiritual  conquest.  The  preaching  that  loses 
its  grip  on  the  individual  man  and  deteriorates  in  moral 
and  spiritual  cogency  will  fail  to  meet  the  needs  of  its  age. 
V,  It  remains  to  consider  some  of  the  formal  quahties 
that  may  be  regarded  as  characteristic  of  the  preaching  of 
our  day.  I  mean  its  methods  of  expounding,  illustrating, 
and  enforcing  the  truth,  of  relating  thought  in  structural 
form,  and  of  rhetorical  or  hterary  expression.  Any 
marked  change  in  the  material  aspects  of  preaching  will 
involve  a  corresponding  change  in  its  formal  aspects. 
Philosophical,  historical,  literar}',  theological,  and  religious 
changes  involve  modification  in  men's  conception  of  the 
nature  of  preaching,  its  object,  its  tone,  and  spirit,  and  all 
this  will  condition  the  preacher's  method.  All  this  is  matter 
of  historic  fact  and  may  be  copiously  illustrated.  So  long, 
for  example,  as  the  apostohc  tradition,  as  fixed  by  Scrip- 
ture, was  the  basis  of  the  preacher's  work,  and  so  long  as 
it  was  understood  that  his  chief  or  only  function  was  to 
interpret  and  enforce  Biblical  truth,  as  of  necessity  the 
homily  represented  his  sole  or  prevailing  method.  It  was 
not  simply  the  fact  that  Cyprian  and  TertuUian  were 
orators,  trained  in  the  classic  school,  but  also  because  they 
were  influenced  by  the  thought  of  their  age  and  won  a 
new  subject-matter  for  their  preaching  that  explains  their 
modification  of  the  church  homily  which  secured  for  their 
work  a  new  and  better  method.  Augustine  and  Chrysostom 
were  theologians  as  well  as  orators,  and  for  this  reason  the 
preaching  of  the  church  was  in  their  hands  still  further 
modified.     It  was  not  simply  pressure  from  without  that 


120  THE   MODERN    PULPIT 

forced  the  preachers  of  the  fourth  century  to  conform  to 
the  rhetorical  standards  of  the  educated  and  cultivated 
classes,  which  were  pressing  into  Constantine's  state 
church,  and  that  resulted  in  the  introduction  of  something 
approximating  the  topical  method  into  the  pulpit.  It  was 
in  part  a  pressure  from  within.  It  was  the  influence  of 
theological  and  ecclesiastical  changes.  Scholastic  preach- 
ing, that  enlarged  and  fixed  the  topical  form,  was  distinctly 
a  product  of  scholastic  thought,  and  the  topical  form  has 
persisted  because  humanistic  culture  necessitates  its  apph- 
cation  to  the  work  of  the  pulpit  as  its  appropriate  instru- 
ment. It  was  because  the  Reformation  returned  to  the 
simphcity  of  the  Gospel  of  Grace  as  its  material  principle, 
and  to  the  authority  of  Scripture  as  its  formal  principle, 
that  it  also  returned  to  the  simple  forms  of  Bibhcal  preach- 
ing. It  was  the  rediscovered  truth  and  the  reanimated 
life  of  the  church  that  created  or  rather  appropriated  a 
method  commensurate  with  and  correspondent  to  its 
needs.  And  it  was  because  the  post-Reformation  period 
returned  to  the  dogmas  of  the  church  as  the  basis  of  the 
work  of  the  pulpit  that  it  demanded  also  a  return  to  the 
scholastic  form  of  preaching  as  its  most  appropriate 
method. 

It  was  because  the  Puritan  preachers  of  England,  and 
later  on  of  New  England,  held  tenaciously  to  the  doctrines 
of  the  Reformed  church  and  to  the  doctrinal  type  of  preach- 
ing that  they  perpetuated  the  scholastic  method  of  the 
post-Reformation.  And  it  was  this  that  modified  even 
the  best  type  of  their  Biblical  preaching.  It  was  the  great 
awakening  in  England,  bringing  new  life  to  the  church, 
that  modified  the  preaching  of  Whitefield  and  the  Wesleys, 
and  that  of  their  successors  still  more.  When  rationalism 
invaded  Germany,  a  new  subject-matter  forced  a  new 
method  of  presenting  it.  When  Unitarianism  broke  with 
New  England  orthodoxy,  it  needed  a  new  method  to  set 
forth  new  conceptions  of  Christianity,  and  it  adopted  a 


CHARACTERISTICS   OF   MODERN   PREACHING      12 1 

modified  form  of  the  topical  method  which  has  persisted 
and  has  in  much  wrought  beneficently.  The  changes  that 
preaching  has  undergone  in  all  countries  that  are  influenced 
by  modem  life  are  due  to  influences  that  have  wrought 
powerfully  in  the  innermost  mental  and  moral  and  re- 
ligious hfe  of  the  church.  Paul,  in  the  second  chapter  of 
his  first  letter  to  the  Corinthians,  has  given  us  the  Christian 
locus  dassicus  for  the  organic  unity  of  the  truth  received 
with  its  method  of  presentation.  To  God-revealed  truth 
answers  a  God-inspired  utterance. 

I.  The  evolutionary  method  of  growth  and  expansion 
is,  therefore,  one  of  the  formal  characteristics  of  modem 
preaching.  It  is  a  development  from  within,  not  an  accre- 
tion from  without.  This  connection  between  the  inner 
substance  and  life  and  the  outer  form  has  indeed  never 
been  wholly  lacking,  and  the  more  spontaneous  and 
natural  preaching  has  been,  the  closer  the  connection. 
But  this  is  preeminently  tme  of  the  preaching  of  our  day. 
The  classical  conception  of  the  formal  character  of  pubhc 
discourse  was  suggested  by  the  arrangement  {dispositio) 
of  troops  in  line  of  battle.  Every  man  in  line  has  his 
place  and  must  do  duty  at  his  post.  Every  topic,  ever}' 
thought,  has  its  place  in  the  line  of  discussion,  and  does 
duty  in  its  place.  It  is  a  feHcitous  suggestion  of  the  order 
and  unity  that  should  characterize  all  effective  discussion. 
But  it  is  easy  to  see  that  it  may  suggest  a  somewhat  external 
relation  of  thought.  Thoughts  may  have  no  inner  con- 
nection, may  not  emerge  from  a  single  centre,  but  may  be 
placed  in  external  juxtaposition,  and  the  intellectual 
degeneracy  of  classical  oratory  into  externality,  artificiality, 
superficiahty,  and  ineffectiveness  may  have  in  part  been 
due  to  a  failure  to  grasp  adequately  the  inner  relations 
of  thought  that  are  essential  to  unity  and  to  cogency  of  im- 
pression, just  as  its  moral  degeneracy  was  due  to  defective 
moral  earnestness  in  the  orator.  Scholasticism  conceived 
the  discourse  as  a  structure.     It  was   something:  built. 


122  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

The  notion  of  building  a  sermon,  the  notion  of  a  piece  of 
homiletic  architecture,  a  piece  of  carpenter  work,  is  an  echo 
of  the  scholastic  conception.  It  suggests  material  that 
is  brought  from  without,  and  the  fact  that  it  is  from  with- 
out furnishes  no  assurance  that  it  may  not  be  very  remotely 
related  to  the  subject.  The  materials  of  thought  are  laid 
in  juxtaposition,  are  built  into  the  sermon,  and  there  is 
growth  by  accretion.  It  therefore  lacks  in  vital  quahty. 
When  preaching  rests  upon  external  authority,  and  gives 
itself  to  the  task  of  defending  formulated  church  doctrines, 
it  is  very  likely  to  import  its  texts  from  without,  and  to 
adjust  them  artificially  to  the  support  of  these  doctrines. 
In  such  external  adjustments  there  can  be  no  unfolding 
of  thought  from  within.  The  point  of  view  from  which 
the  modern  sermon  is  contemplated,  however,  is  that  of  the 
organism.  The  organism  develops  from  within,  in  the 
evolutionary  process,  and  this  unfolding  process  is  one 
of  the  marks  of  the  best  type  of  modem  preaching.  It  was 
one  of  the  working  principles  of  Frederick  Robertson's 
preaching  that  the  sermon  should  unfold  itself  from  within 
outward,  rather  than  move  from  without  inward.  This 
was  in  harmony  with  the  Bibhcal  and  experimental  char- 
acter of  his  preaching.  His  sermon  grew  as  an  organism. 
And  this  was  in  Hne  with  his  conception  of  the  function 
of  the  preacher  as  primarily  that  of  an  interpreter.  This 
interpreting  function  involves  two  factors,  the  historical 
and  the  experimental.  Their  presence  in  the  work  of 
interpretation  necessitates  the  unfolding  process.  To  be 
an  interpreter,  the  preacher  must  first  of  all  get  into  close 
connection  with  the  truth  he  is  to  proclaim,  he  must  get 
into  working  relation  with  the  Bibhcal  writer,  whose 
thoughts  he  is  to  unfold,  must  get  his  point  of  view,  must 
make  real  in  his  own  mind  and  heart  the  truth  that  is 
given.  Then  he  must  fertilize  ifr  with  the  content  of  his 
own  inner  experience,  must  vitalize  it  by  the  energies  of  his 
own  intelligence  and  imagination,  must  get  it  into  con- 


CHARACTERISTICS   OF   MODERN   PREACHING      123 

nection  with  principles  that  are  universally  valid  and  get  it 
into  working  connection  with  the  realities  of  Ufe.  This  is 
the  work  of  the  interpreter,  and  it  is  a  movement  from 
within.  Such  an  interpreter  is  the  man  who  brings  out 
things  new  and  old  from  the  inner  treasure-house  of  truth, 
and  it  may  be  claimed  that  the  modem  preacher  of  the 
best  type  does  this. 

2.  Closely  connected  with  the  unfolding  process 
is  the  element  of  variety.  The  preacher  will  avoid  a 
stereotyped  method,  which  is  unproductive  and  ineffective. 
Each  sermon  will  be  of  its  own  kind,  and  bear  its  own 
distinctive  mark.  A  method  that  will  do  for  one  sermon 
will  not  do  for  another.  A  legitimate  use  of  texts,  product 
largely  of  historic  and  literary  criticism,  furthers  that  variety 
which  is  the  result  of  homiletic  individuahzation.  Instead 
of  importing  from  without  the  thought  or  truth  the 
preacher  wishes  to  discuss,  and  smugghng  it  into  the  text 
in  the  old  allegorical  fashion,  which  with  various  modifi- 
cations has  been  for  centuries  perpetuated  in  the  pulpit, 
and  instead  of  proceeding  to  evolve  what  he  has  laid  into 
the  text,  he  reverses  the  process.  He  gets  the  exact 
thought  of  the  writer,  the  main,  or,  it  may  be,  some  sub- 
ordinate thought,  or  he  takes  some  thought  inwardly  sug- 
gested by  some  vahd  principle  of  associated  ideas,  and 
therefore  legitimately  suggested,  and  he  makes  this  the 
entire  basis  of  his  discussion.  Thus  not  only  the  thought, 
but  the  whole  tone  and  spirit  of  the  text,  as  it  hves  in  the 
preacher's  imagination  and  feehng,  dominates  the  dis- 
cussion. In  this  way  each  discourse,  evolved  as  to  its 
substance  of  thought  from  within,  and  pervaded  by  the 
tone  quality  of  the  text,  as  it  finds  echo  in  his  own  inner 
life,  will  have  its  own  distinctive  character,  and  variety 
is  the  result.  There  will  be  as  many  sorts  of  individual 
sermons  as  there  are  texts  and  as  many  types  of  sermons 
as  there  are  types  of  texts  and  of  subjects. 

The   unfolding   of   topics,    as  well   as   of   texts  also, 


124  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

promotes  variety.  Instead  of  selecting  topics  in  an  arbitrary 
manner,  as  from  an  outside  storehouse  where  they  are  all 
gathered  in  waiting  for  use,  and  forcing  the  thought 
material  of  the  sermon,  whatever  it  may  be,  to  gather 
about  these  topics  as  centres,  thus  necessitating  artificiality 
and  monotony  of  treatment,  the  preacher  reverses  the 
process.  He  will  evolve  his  topics  or  thought-centres 
from  within  the  thought  material  of  the  subject  itself, 
taldng  only  such  as  are  naturally  suggested  and  yield  them- 
selves readily  to  the  homiletic  touch.  He  draws  from 
within  outward,  applying  the  logical  activities  of  his  own 
mind,  in  a  simple,  natural  way,  to  the  material  of  the  sub- 
ject, and  the  sermon  under  this  inner  pressure  of  thought 
unfolds  itself  freely  and  with  facility  and  fluency  of  move- 
ment, and  this  as  of  necessity  secures  variety  of  structural 
form.  Such  variety  secures  the  sermon  against  common- 
place treatment.  The  commonplaces  of  classical  rhetoric 
—  loci  communes  —  were  those  classified  topics  or  cate- 
gories of  thought  that  were  regarded  as  adapted  in  common 
to  the  discussion  of  certain  classes  of  subjects  or  to  certain 
types  of  oratory.  A  scientific  analysis,  like  that  of  Aristotle, 
of  topics  that  have  a  common  adaptation  to  any  type  of 
public  discourse  does  not  necessarily  involve  artificiality  of 
treatment  when  apphed  to  any  rhetorical  product,  so 
long  as  these  topics  are  evolved  from  within,  in  connection 
with  the  development  of  the  thought  material  of  the  subject, 
rather  than  imported  from  without.  It  is  the  external 
application  of  topics  that  marks  a  degeneracy  in  pubhc 
speech,  and  it  is  thus  that  the  "commonplaces"  of  public 
speech,  by  becoming  external  and  monotonous  and  stereo- 
typed, become  also  "commonplace."  The  commonplace 
in  speech  is  the  artificial  and  the  stereotyped. 

The  practical  and  literary  sense  of  the  preacher  also 
promotes  variety.  He  who  is  accustomed  to  lay  stress  upon 
the  ethical  significance  of  his  preaching,  who  estimates  the 
sermon  as  an  instrument  for  bringing  something  to  pass, 


CHARACTERISTICS   OF   MODERN   PREACHING     12$ 

who  knows  that  its  worth  is  precisely  in  what  it  accom- 
phshes,  will  dread  and  will  avoid  monotony  and  common- 
place. He  knows  that  he  must  meet  a  great  variety  of 
needs  in  the  complex  hfe  of  men,  and  that  he  must  adjust 
his  preaching  to  those  needs.  Modern  hfe  is  clamorous 
for  the  zest  of  variety.  Woe  to  the  preacher  who  ignores 
such  clamor.  Literary  culture  also  exacts  variety  and 
promotes  it.  For  literary  facihty  necessitates  a  certain 
freshness  and  variety  of  treatment. 

The  nondogmatic  habit  of  mind  is  Hkewise  promotive 
of  the  same  result.  Preaching  that  anchors  to  church 
dogma,  or  to  propositional  theology,  ahnost  as  of  necessity 
involves  itself  in  monotony.  Scholasticism  has  given  us 
structural  homiletics.  Its  stereotyped  method  was  one  of  its 
most  characteristic  marks  and  most  serious  defects.  Each 
sermon  must  defend  its  thesis  or  proposition  by  appeal  to 
law.  All  the  recognized  cycles  of  law  —  Mosaic,  Levitical, 
prophetical,  evangehcal,  apostolic,  and  canonical  law — were 
brought  into  the  field  of  discussion,  unto  a  dreary  elabo- 
rateness and  monotony  from  which  all  hfe  had  fled  and 
all  power  had  vanished.  The  preaching  of  New  England 
in  the  eighteenth  century  was  indeed  in  many  respects 
a  great  modification  of  the  scholastic  type,  but  it  belonged 
to  that  same  general  school.  It  was  supremely  doctrinal 
and  supremely  monotonous,  not  simply  in  its  range  of  sub- 
jects, but  in  its  method  of  treatment.  The  sermon  ahnost 
invariably  had  two  main  divisions,  with  numerous  sub- 
divisions,' the  first,  theoretic,  containing  the  discussion, 
which  was  generally  argumentative,  the  second,  practical, 
called  "improvement"  or  "use."  Its  anchorage  ground 
was  the  theology  of  the  church  or  of  some  school,  and  even 
the  Biblical  material,  as  already  frequently  suggested,  be- 
came a  vehicle  for  conveying  this  theology.  It  overvalued 
indoctrination  as  the  aim  of  the  sermon  and  correct  behef 
as  its  result.  But  the  preacher  of  our  day  has  learned  that 
he  may  be  didactic  and  edifying,  reflective  and  instructive, 


126  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

without  being  dogmatic  or  argumentative  or  polemical. 
He  has  learned  that  the  main  object  of  the  sermon  is  not 
to  indoctrinate  nor  to  defend  the  theology  of  the  church, 
but  to  interpret  the  content  of  Biblical  rehgion,  to  persuade 
men  to  accept  it,  and  to  build  men  into  a  Christian  type 
of  manhood.  In  this  modification  of  aim  and  process  we 
get  variety  in  the  modern  pulpit. 

3.  Concreteness  is  another  quahty  of  form  that  distin- 
guishes the  preaching  of  our  day.  It  moves  in  the  realm 
of  life  rather  than  of  abstract  thought,  of  experience  rather 
than  of  theory,  of  illustration  rather  than  of  argument,  of 
concrete  reahty  rather  than  of  speculation.  Concreteness 
is  a  material  as  well  as  formal  quahty,  and  the  two 
cannot  be  separated.  It  is  conditioned  not  wholly  by  the 
preacher's  habit  of  mind  and  by  his  hterary  taste  and  cul- 
ture, but  by  his  conception  of  revelation,  with  whose  sub- 
stance he  deals.  When  revelation  was  regarded  as  the 
disclosure  of  the  mind  of  God,  of  His  thought  and  purpose 
and  plan  of  redemption,  whose  contents  were  fixed  in 
Scripture  as  a  body  of  doctrine,  it  was  natural  that  the 
doctrinal  aspects  of  Christianity  should  be  put  in  the  fore- 
front, and  that  the  teaching  function  of  the  preacher 
should  receive  chief  emphasis.  Rehgion  is  to  be  appre- 
hended as  a  form  of  knowledge.  Behef  belongs  to  the  very 
essence  of  faith.  The  church  is  for  the  mature,  the  thought- 
ful mind  as  well  as  the  awakened  heart  and  conscience  is 
evidence  that  religion  is  doing  its  work  in  the  soul.  The 
church  as  the  object  of  the  preacher's  work  must  be  edified, 
and  edification  is  indoctrination.  The  pulpit,  therefore,  is 
conceived  as  the  organ  of  church  orthodoxy,  and  when  the 
pulpit,  following  theology,  chose  logic,  the  science  of 
thought,  as  its  instrument  of  interpretation,  it  was  a  neces- 
sary result  that  preaching  should  become  abstract,  should 
move  in  a  circle  of  inwardly  related  ideas,  should  appro- 
priate the  categories  of  dialectic  rather  than  of  rhetoric, 
and  should  fail  to  enter  the  reabn  of  concrete  reaUty,  the 


CHARACTERISTICS   OF   MODERN   PREACHING      127 

realm  of  life  and  experience,  as  its  proper  domain.    With 
changed  conceptions  of  Christianity  as  the  revelation  of 
God  came  changed  conceptions  of  preaching.     Revelation 
is  the   historic  presence   of    God   in   redemption.     That 
presence  still  and  ever  abides  in  humanity,  and  all  human 
hfe  takes  on  new  significance  by  reason  of  that  ever  abiding 
presence  that  consecrates  all  things.     All  men,  all  things, 
all  events,  all  experiences,  all  sciences,  all  arts,  all  mdus- 
tries,    all    commerce,    all    politics,    all    knowledge,  —  all 
things  in  this  whole  earth  of  God,  belong  to  the  kmgdom 
of  God,  which  is  the  kingdom  of  redemption.     And  this 
whole  vast  world  of  reality  is  open  to  the  prcacher.^    Truth 
may  find  evervwhere  its  agent  or  instrument  of  interpre- 
tation and  enforcement.     All  things  are  of  God  and  all 
things  belong  to  the  preacher,  for  he  belongs  to  Christ,  as 
Christ  to  God,  and  all  things  belong  to  the  kingdom  of 
God.     The   significance  for  the  work  of   the   Christian 
pulpit  of  the  redemptive  presence  of  God  in  the  world 
cannot  be  overestimated,  and  therefore  the  significance  of 
life,  as  the  concrete  realm  in  which  the  preacher  moves, 
cannot  be  overvalued.     It  is  because  it  moves  in  the  realm 
of  experience  and  not  of  abstract  thought  that  the  preach- 
ing of  our  day  is  humanistic  rather  than  ecclesiastical  or 
theological.     But  it  is  not  only  modified  conceptions  of 
Christianity,  but  the  pressure  of  life  itself  that  has  forced 
the  change.     The  concrete  quality  of  modem  preaching 
is  proof  that  the  reahties  of  life  have  forced  the  preacher 
to  cherish  larger  and  profounder  and  richer  and  truer 
conceptions  of  human  nature,  of  its  needs  and  its  demands, 
and  to  adopt  more  adequate  methods  of  reaching  and  influ- 
encing it.     It  knows,  indeed,  the  sin  and  per\'ersion  and 
degradation  of  man,  but  it  values  the  instincts  and  impulses 
of  the  heart  and  the  convictions  of  the  conscience  that  have 
survived  his  ruin.     It  knows  the  significance  of  imagination 
and  esthetic  sense  for  the  feeUngs  and  the  will.     It  knows 
the  soul  in  the  unity  and  totahty  of  its  powers,  and  does 


128  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

not  isolate  these  powers.  The  Scriptures  are  a  literature 
rich  in  concrete  material,  that  soHcits  the  preacher's  im- 
agination, that  awakens  his  emotional  life,  that  stirs  his 
poetic  susceptibihties,  and  it  must  interpret  itself  through 
the  preacher,  in  forms  correspondent  to  its  wealth  of  con- 
crete reality.  It  is  this  fresh  sense  of  hfe's  sacredness  as 
conditioned  by  richer  conceptions  of  the  world  as  the 
kingdom  of  God,  this  pressure  of  hfe's  realities  upon  the 
preacher,  and  this  enrichment  of  his  hterary  culture,  that 
are  tributary  to  the  concrete  quahty  of  his  method. 

4.  In  hne  with  its  inwardness,  its  variety,  and  its  con- 
creteness  is  the  suggestiveness  of  the  modem  method. 
One  of  the  chief  defects  of  that  type  of  preaching  with 
which  that  of  our  own  day  stands  in  strongest  contrast, 
and  to  which  for  purposes  of  contrast  constant  reference 
has  been  made,  was  that  it  valued  the  subject  at  the  expense 
of  the  object  of  the  sermon.  In  seeking  to  do  "justice  to 
the  subject,"  it  did  injustice  to  the  object.  What  the 
preacher  sought  was  an  overwhelming  mental  impression. 
He  affected  an  inventiveness  and  exhaustiveness  of  argu- 
ment that  would  irresistibly  convince  the  hearer  and  leave 
him  no  standing  ground  for  question  or  objection.  He 
would  say  all  that  could  be  said  about  his  theme,  and  what 
he  said  sometimes  lost  sight  of  the  practical  interests  of 
the  hearer.  The  treatise  may  say  all  that  it  wishes  to  say 
and  all  that  can  be  said,  but  what  the  preacher  says  must 
be  conditioned  by  a  valid  reason  for  saying  it  at  all.  It 
is  the  object  that  should  determine  the  handhng  of  the 
subject.  The  preacher  who  puts  all  his  strength  into  the 
subject  overworks  it,  and  it  becomes  ineffective.  Preach- 
ing that  follows  a  logical  scent,  one  related  thought  in 
the  line  of  development  suggesting  another,  and  this 
still  another,  and  on  indefinitely,  piles  together  a  bulky 
mass  of  topics  and  subordinate  topics  and  sub- thoughts, 
and  when  the  end  comes  the  subject  is  exhausted,  and  the 
audience,  and  perhaps  the  preacher  too.      Over  against 


CHARACTERISTICS   OF   MODERN   PREACHING      129 

the  elaborate  and  exhaustive  stands  the  suggestive  method. 
Robertson,  in  this  as  in  all  else  a  preacher  of  the  highest 
rank,  uttered  the  true  modem  note  in  announcing  it  as 
one  of  his  regulative  homiletic  principles  to  preach  sug- 
gestively rather  than  exhaustively.  We  hear  much  of 
suggestive  preaching  in  our  day.  There  is  confessedly  a 
little  vagueness  about  the  term.  And  yet  its  general  im- 
port is  evident.  Compendiously,  then,  that  may  be  desig- 
nated as  suggestive  preaching  that  undertakes  to  regulate 
the  discussion  of  the  subject  in  such  wsiy  as  will  win  from 
the  hearer  an  emotional  interest  and  enhst  his  sympa- 
thetic participation  in  the  discussion.  But  let  us  analyze 
the  conception  a  httle  more  closely.  It  presupposes  as 
its  basis  a  presentation  of  the  truth  to  the  intelligence  of 
men.  It  must  get  hold  of  the  minds  of  men.  If  it  is  to  be 
suggestive,  something  must  be  suggested.  Intelligence  must 
have  something  to  work  upon  as  its  foundation.  It  will 
deal,  therefore,  with  important  Christian  themes.  What 
is  of  no  importance,  or  what  is  relatively  insignificant, 
fails  to  move  the  intelligence  of  men.  Suggestive  preach- 
ing, therefore,  is  fundamentally  and  characteristically 
didactic.  The  preacher  seeks  to  commend  the  truth  he 
advocates  to  the  mental  and  moral  judgment  of  his  hearers. 
He  sees  that  in  the  advancing  culture  of  our  day  Chris- 
tianity must  meet  the  intellectual  needs  of  men.  He  must 
have  something  that  is  worthy  to  say.  He  will  be  thoroughly 
possessed  of  his  subject  and  will  handle  it  with  such  large- 
ness and  freeness  that  a  worthy  mental  impression  will 
be  made.  And  this  leads  to  the  suggestion  that  the  didac- 
tic method  chosen  will  be  such  as  moves  the  mind  through 
the  imagination  and  gives  the  truth  a  free  chance  to  work. 
Elaborate  doctrinal  or  argumentative  preaching  addresses 
itself  to  the  understanding.  Suggestive  preaching  leaves 
something  for  the  creative  activities  of  the  hearer.  It 
rehes  upon  so  quickening  the  imagination,  and  thus  the 
powers  of  invention,  that  what  may  be  lacking  in  the  fulness 


130  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

of  the  preacher's  presentation  may  be  supphed  by  the 
hearer's  imaginative  activity.  As  addressing  the  imagi- 
nation it  also  stimulates  the  emotions,  for  feeling  and 
imagination  are  closely  alhed.  The  mind  follows  up  the 
truth  presented  because  the  emotions  are  stirred  and  impel 
the  mind  to  action.  What  creates  an  emotional  interest 
results,  or  may  or  should  result,  in  creating  a  more  intense 
intellectual  interest.  It  involves,  therefore,  the  presen- 
tation of  the  truth  in  such  v^ay  that  the  hearer  catches 
it  by  ghmpses  as  it  were.  It  deals  with  the  main  features 
of  the  subject,  its  sahent  outhnes,  and  not  with  its  mul- 
titudinous details  and  in  elaborate  and  fully  developed 
form,  hence  suggestive  is  the  antithesis  of  elaborate,  and 
this  is  its  salient  characteristic.  It  suggests,  it  intimates 
more  than  is  said.  What  is  said  is  said  with  such  pene- 
trating and  quickening  power,  with  such  stirring  effect 
upon  the  activities  of  the  soul,  that  the  mind  is  set  in  eager 
movement  along  hnes  of  related  thought,  and  thus  the 
bearings  of  the  truth,  its  inferential  productiveness,  are 
the  more  readily  grasped  by  the  mind.  It  discloses  the 
germinal  power  of  the  truth.  Hence,  the  suggestive 
sermon  moves  freely  and  rapidly  and  is  not  overwrought 
in  its  homiletic  structure.  It  has  rhetorical  faciHty  and 
knows  no  stereotyped  form,  for  it  flows  from  within  as 
from  a  fountain.  The  form  is  flexible,  the  divisions  of  the 
sermon  few,  and  its  success  is  not  dependent  on  formal 
announcement.  This  simple,  unelaborate  form  character- 
izes modern  preaching  of  almost  every  school.  Suggestive 
preaching  also  moves  in  the  realm  of  life  and  experience, 
not  in  that  of  abstract  thought,  and  it  has  reference  to 
practical  results.  The  truth  presented  is  of  such  sort,  and 
it  is  so  presented,  that  experience  can  interpret  and  make 
it  real  to  the  hearer.  It  is  experience  that  aids  in  disclosing 
its  practical  import.  The  hearer  is  expected  to  "do  some- 
thing about  it." 

5.    The  predominance  of  the  Hterary  or  rhetorical  as 


CHARACTERISTICS   OF  MODERN   PREACHING      131 

distinguished  from  the  dialectical  quahty  is  another  char- 
acteristic of  modern  homiletic  form.  This,  too,  is  in  har- 
mony with  quahties  already  suggested.  The  preacher 
aims  at  simpUcity  of  structure  and  simplicity  of  style. 
As  the  elaborate  dialectical  method  of  discussion  that 
characterized  the  preaching  of  the  eighteenth  century  is 
discredited,  so  also  is  its  elaborate  and  stately  rhetorical 
style.  It  is  regarded  as  overwrought  and  stilted.  No 
representative  of  the  ornate,  high-flying  style,  sometimes 
called  Ciceronian  or  Johnsonian,  remains  among  the  promi- 
nent preachers  of  our  day,  and  such  as  may  have  resisted 
the  rhetorical  and  oratorical  influences  that  belong  to  the 
culture  of  our  time,  and  have  perpetuated  the  style  of 
other  days,  have  lost  prestige  as  preachers.  The  preach- 
ing of  our  day  is  more  colloquial,  and,  if  one  may  so  say, 
more  confidential.  The  preacher  is  nearer  to  his  audience 
and  is  freer  in  his  communication  and  more  direct  in  his 
address.  And  since  the  extemporaneous  method  brings 
speaker  and  audience  into  closer  relation,  the  modern 
preacher  affects  this  method.  With  colloquial  simplicity 
and  naturalness  may  be  associated  clearness  and  cogency. 
It  is  the  clearness  of  truth  that  is  copiously  illustrated  and 
has  the  vividness  of  imaginative  representation.  It  has 
also  the  cogency  of  a  more  vigorous  diction,  for  it  is  the 
language  of  common  hfe  and  it  speaks  with  the  greater 
force  because  the  hearer  is  famihar  with  it,  and  because 
the  common  images  of  thought  strike  the  mind  the  more 
forcibly  when  brought  into  relation  with  what  is  less 
famihar. 

We  may  detect  the  influence  of  the  modem  deliberative 
and  judicial  type  of  oratory  and  of  the  modern  newspaper 
upon  our  style  of  preaching.  It  has  the  businesslike 
quahty  that  marks  all  our  methods,  and  when  at  its  best 
it  discloses  the  excellencies  of  our  literary  culture. 

But  it  is  not  always  at  its  best.  This  tendency  to  freedom 
and  familiarity  may  degenerate,  and  not  infrequently  does 


132  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

degenerate,  into  colloquial  and  undignified  homeliness  and 
a  mental  condescension  that  is  marked  by  coarseness  and 
vulgarity.  Thinking  to  bring  himself  to  the  level  of  the 
needs  and  tastes  of  the  populace,  the  preacher  becomes 
flippant  and  shallow  and  commonplace,  and  cheapens  his 
work  and  dishonors  his  ofhce  and  his  calling.  The  pulpit 
has  not  escaped  the  influence  of  the  sensational  news- 
paper. It  is  an  excess  even  unto  the  grossest  perversion 
and  deformity  that  converts  the  concrete,  illustrative, 
and  practically  effective  method  into  a  vulgar  sensational- 
ism. Sensational  preaching  is  certainly  not  confined 
to  the  modem  pulpit.  It  has  had  its  run  in  other  ages 
to  an  even  larger  extent  and  in  grosser  form,  and  it  has 
always  marked  a  degeneracy  in  the  preaching  of  the  age. 
It  is  a  concession  to  vulgarity  that  is  intolerable.  Its  worst 
feature  is  its  wild  grotesqueness  and  startling  contradictions 
of  thought,  its  immoral  exaggerations  of  statement  that 
have  all  the  effect  of  untruth,  or  even  of  downright  false- 
hood that  leaves  an  unwholesome  result  in  the  imagination 
and  feeling  and  moral  character  of  both  preacher  and 
hearer.  But  this  taste  for  rhetorical  novelties,  exaggera- 
tions, and  grotesque  vagaries  of  thought  and  expression 
is  a  perversion,  and  not  a  normal  development,  of  the 
culture  of  the  time.  Even  in  this  regard  the  modem 
pulpit  is  far  in  advance  of  that  of  ruder  ages  of  the  past, 
and  is  on  the  whole  marked  by  a  superior  sobriety  of  judg- 
ment and  of  taste.  But  the  seK-respecting,  serious- minded 
preacher  has  this  vulgarity  and  degeneracy  to  meet,  and 
he  has  to  meet  the  active,  busy  spirit  behind  it,  that 
clamors  for  excitement  and  entertainment  in  the  house  of 
God,  clamors  for  what  calls  itself  pithy  and  smart  and 
timely  and  would  convert  the  pulpit  into  a  competitor 
with  the  playhouse,  the  circus,  and  the  Sunday  newspaper. 
It  must  meet  that  degenerate  section  of  the  public  that 
accounts  for  a  sensational  pulpit  and  that  is  fed  by  the 
modem   abomination   of  yellow   joumalism.     It  is  only 


CHARACTERISTICS   OF  MODERN   PREACHING      133 

an  educated  and  high-minded  public  and  ministry  that 
will  dislodge  from  the  pulpit  this  degenerate  phase  of  a 
popular  and  effective  type  of  preaching,  which  will  not 
subordinate  substance  to  form,  or  permanent  to  transient 
effects. 

To  summarize  briefly,  then,  the  results  of  our  discussion 
it  may  be  claimed  that  the  preaching  which  at  its  best  may 
be  called  characteristic  of  our  day  has  certainly  a  sounder 
philosophical  and  theological  basis,  for  it  is  grounded  in  a 
better  theory  of  rehgious  knowledge,  and  in  a  more  ade- 
quate conception  of  God,  and  of  his  relation  to  the  universe ; 
it  represents  a  more  defensible  conception  of  supernatural 
Christianity,  and  is  therefore  more  reasonable,  because 
more  natural  in  the  large  acceptance  of  that  term,  and  hence 
more  intelHgible  in  its  presentation  of  the  truth ;  it  is  more 
distinctively  historical  in  its  basis  and  less  abstract  and 
speculative,  for  its  deals  with  the  subject-matter  of  positive 
historic  rehgion;  it  is  more  discriminating  in  its  use  of 
BibUcal  sources,  for  it  is  subject  to  the  critical  spirit  of  the 
time;  it  handles  a  more  distinctively  Christian  subject- 
matter  and  especially  a  more  distinctively  Christian  type 
of  ethics,  for  it  gets  nearer  the  heart  of  the  living  historic 
Christ  and  knows  Him  more  completely  in  His  central  and 
comprehensive  significance  for  all  human  Hfe.  In  its  best 
estate,  therefore,  it  is  more  spiritual  as  distinguished  from 
one-sidedly  intellectual  in  its  tone ;  it  has  a  more  decisively 
practical  and  missionary  quahty,  for  it  knows  Christianity 
more  adequately  as  a  race  rehgion  and  as  a  universal  and 
pervasive  hfe ;  it  has,  therefore,  a  broader  scope  and  deals 
with  a  larger  range  of  human  interests ;  it  is  more  concrete 
in  its  representation  and  more  direct  in  its  apphcation  of 
Christianity  to  human  hfe ;  it  has  a  better  hterary  quahty, 
is  more  intellectually  suggestive,  more  sympathetically 
human  in  its  outreach  into  the  hfe  of  men,  and  more  ethi- 
cahy  strenuous  in  its  apphcation  of  Christianity  to  the 
conduct  of  hfe.     All  this  will  be  recognized  by  the  careful 


134  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

Student  of  the  subject,  and  much  of  it  is  obvious  at  the 
surface.  And  much  of  all  this  must  be  recognized  as 
measurably  due,  directly  or  indirectly,  to  those  influences 
—  intellectual,  ethical,  rehgious,  aesthetic  and  literary — 
that  originated  in  Germany  and  which  have  passed,  to  use 
Emerson's  words,  "  by  balloon  or  by  underground  railroad  " 
to  other  countries,  especially  to  Great  Britain  and  to  the 
United  States.  It  is,  therefore,  desirable  in  prosecuting  still 
further  our  study  of  the  modern  pulpit  to  consider  the 
preaching  of  different  nationalities  and  schools,  and  it  is 
natural  that  we  should  begin  with  the  German  pulpit. 


CHAPTER    IV 

MODERN     PREACHING     AS     REPRESENTED     BY     DIFFERENT 
NATIONALITIES   AND   RELIGIOUS   COMMUNIONS 


THE   GERMAN   PULPIT 

The  German  pulpit  has  made  no  very  strong  impression 
upon  the  modern  world  at  large,  nor  has  it  made  any  very 
valuable  contribution  to  the  technical  aspects  of  modern 
preaching.  This  is  due  in  large  measure  to  certain  inherent 
defects  which  have  precluded  any  very  wide-reaching  or 
intelligent  interest  in  it.  But  it  reflects  in  some  large 
measure,  either  directly  or  indirectly,  the  influences  of  Ger- 
man thought,  culture,  and  piety  that  were  prevalent  during 
the  last  century,  and  it  is  characterized,  moreover,  by  certain 
excellencies  of  its  own  that  are  worthy  of  attention-.  It 
becomes,  therefore,  an  important  subject  of  investigation, 
and  no  inteUigent  study  of  modern  preaching  will  fail  to 
acquaint  itself  with  it. 

The  writer  cannot  claim  an  extensi^'e  knowledge  of 
the  preaching  of  Germany,  nor  personal  acquaintance  with 
living  German  preachers.  The  few  to  whom  he  once 
listened  have  already  finished  their  work,  and  the  more 
prominent  living  preachers  he  knows  only  in  Umited 
measure  through  their  pubhshed  products  and  especially 
in  their  contributions  to  homiletic  journals.  But  such 
German  homiletic  hterature  is  quite  extensive,  and  one  may 
gain  a  fair  knowledge  of  German  preaching,  even  by  a 
somewhat  hmited  study  of  individual  men  through  their 
more  and  even  less  distinctively  homiletic  work. 

135 


136  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 


Before  entering  upon  an  analysis  of  the  salient  char- 
acteristics of  German  preaching  in  general,  let  us  attempt 
an  examination  of  some  of  the  schools  that  represent  it. 
We  naturally  classify  German  preachers  according  to  their 
prevaihng  theological  tendencies.  This  is  the  basis  of 
classification  that  one  is  hkely  to  find  in  German  homiletic 
works/  The  German  preacher  is  always  something  of  a 
theologian.  His  theology,  indeed,  never  appears  to  any 
very  considerable  extent  directly  or  in  a  formal  manner, 
save  in  exceptional,  occasional  instances  in  the  pulpit. 
He  never  parades  his  science  in  popular  rehgious  discourse. 
The  elaborately  wrought  sermon  that  speaks  prevaiHngly 
to  the  understanding  and  seeks  edification  by  increase  or 
correction  of  theological  knowledge  is  not  at  all  in  line  with 
the  homiletic  theories  or  habits  of  any  school  of  modern 
German  preachers,  even  the  most  dogmatic.  Theological 
indoctrination  by  the  pulpit  at  least  is  not  regarded  as 
necessary  to  religious  edification.  The  persuasive  always 
dominates  the  didactic  quahty.  The  intellectual  factor 
is  somewhat  meagre,  but  feeling  and  sentiment  abound. 
Moreover,  the  German  preacher  is  less  subject  than  the 
British,  French,  or  American  preacher  to  those  influences 
that  affect  the  formal  quahty  of  preaching.  Pulpit  oratory 
and  rhetoric  have  apparently  never  been  cultivated  in 
Germany  to  any  very  considerable  extent.  The  German 
preacher  generally  cares  apparently  but  little  for  questions 
of  literary  or  rhetorical  or  oratorical  form.  He  lays  chief 
stress  upon  edification  by  spiritual  incentive,  and  the  rhe- 
torical or  oratorical  interest  is  entirely  subordinate  to  this 
supreme  object.  It  would  be  exceedingly  difficult,  there- 
fore, to  classify  German  preachers  according  to  methods 
of  formal  homiletics.     Our  classification,  therefore,  must 

^  E.g.  "  Zur  Geschichte  der  Predigt  in  der  Evangelischen  Kirche,"  etc. 
Ludwig  Stiebritz.     Gotha,  1875. 


THE   GERMAN   PULPIT  1 37 

be  material  rather  than  formal,  and  the  theological  ten- 
dency will  have  chief  material  significance.  For  the 
preacher's  theological  point  of  view  is  pretty  sure  to 
disclose  itself  in  the  fibre  of  his  thought  and  the  tone 
of  his  feeling,  although  it  may  not  appear  in  explicit  or 
obtrusive  form. 

One  may  become  fairly  well  acquainted  with  some  of 
the  leading  German  preachers  of  our  own  day  by  a  careful 
examination  of  homiletic  journals  that  represent  different 
theological  or  ecclesiastical  or  homiletic  interests.  There 
are  three  which  the  author  has  found  of  interest  and  value. 
Oehler's  "Zeitschrift  fiir  Pastoral -Theologie,"  entitled 
"Halte  was  du  hast,"  represents  the  evangehcal  churches 
and  in  a  moderate  way  is  devoted  to  the  confessional  in- 
terest. Kleinert  of  Berhn  and  Kostlin  of  Friedberg  are 
coeditors  with  Oehler.  The  "Zeitschrift  fiir  Praktische 
Theologie,"  Basserman  of  Heidelberg  editor-in-chief,  with 
the  cooperation  of  Holtzman  of  Strassburg  and  Nippold  of 
Jena,  and  others,  may  be  said  to  be  devoted  to  the  interests 
of  the  broad  wing  of  the  school  of  Schleiermacher.  "Die 
Predigt  der  Gegenwart  fiir  die  evangelischen  Geistlichen 
und  Gemeinden, "  edited  by  Dr.  Wendel,  with  the  coopera- 
tion of  Hilgenfeld  of  Jena,  Hausrath  of  Heidelberg,  as  well 
also  as  Holtzman  and  others,  seems  to  represent  the  liberal 
school.  In  all  of  these  journals  may  be  found  sermons  of 
various  sorts — festal  sermons,  baptismal  sermons,  confir- 
mation sermons,  candidate  sermons,  and  ordinary  pastoral 
sermons,  by  German  professors,  church  officials,  pastors, 
and  candidates  of  our  day,  all  of  which  illustrate  varieties 
of  theological  point  of  view,  as  well  as  different  homiletic 
methods.  One  finds  here  also  meditations,  plans,  and 
sketches  in  great  abundance.  These  journals  furnish  a 
very  good  basis  for  estimating  the  condition  of  homiletic 
science  in  Germany,  as  well  as  the  condition  of  church 
life  and  the  developments  of  practical  theology  in  general. 
But  in  the  choice  of  representatives  of  different  schools 


138  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

of  German  preachers  it  has  seemed  preferable  to  select 
those  whose  names  are  well  known  otherwise  than  as 
preachers,  and  who  for  the  most  part  have  already 
finished  their  work. 

i.  The  confessional  school  of  preachers  may  first  be 
considered.  They  are  adherents  of  theological  tradition, 
successors  under  new  conditions  of  the  old  orthodox 
school  that  fought  the  pietists  and  subsequently  joined 
hands  with  them  in  fighting  the  rationalists.  They  are 
less  subject  than  other  schools  to  modern  influences,  and 
are  largely  members  of  the  old  Lutheran  church,  although 
representatives  of  the  Reformed  church  are  also  num- 
bered with  them. 

The  influences  that  promoted  the  revival  of  confession- 
alism  in  the  early  part  of  the  last  century,  it  will  be  recalled, 
were  partly  poHtical.  The  Prussian  government  availed 
itself  of  the  new  historic  interest  that  had  been  awakened 
in  the  old  confessions  of  the  church  and  in  the  Lutheran 
body,  especially  in  connection  with  the  tricentenary  of  the 
Reformation,  as  a  favorable  moment  to  push  the  movement 
on  and  to  effect  a  closer  alliance  between  the  church  and 
the  state.  But  it  was  more  largely  a  reactionary  theologi- 
cal movement  in  which  protest  was  made  against  the  union 
of  the  two  chief  branches  of  the  German  church.  The 
union  was  completed  in  1830,  four  years  before  the  death 
of  Schleiermacher,  who  with  his  school  were  its  most 
earnest  ecclesiastical  supporters.  But  on  specific  theo- 
logical grounds  and  in  general  revolt  against  the  influence 
of  the  subjective  theology  of  the  school  of  Schleiermacher, 
many  of  the  Lutheran  and  some  of  the  Reformed  churches 
and  their  church  leaders  broke  with  the  union  and  now 
constitute  a  distinct  theological  party.  In  spite  of  them- 
selves they  have  been  variously  influenced  by  the  move- 
ments of  modern  thought  and  fife,  and  manifest  different 
tendencies.  Those  who  are  prominent  in  our  own  day 
are  much  more  moderate  in  tone  and  temper  than  their 


THE   GERMAN   PULPIT 


139 


homiletic  ancestors  and  are  content  to  present  the  saving 
truths  of  supernatural  Christianity  as  they  understand 
them  in  a  characteristically  earnest  and  sympathetic 
German  manner.  There  is  a  good  deal  of  this  type  of 
evangeUcal  preaching  in  the  German  churches  that  has 
steered  clear  of  the  radicahsm  of  German  liberalism  and 
the  vagueness  of  German  mysticism.  But  as  a  school 
these  confessionahsts  represent  the  old  dogmatism  of  the 
German  pulpit,  although  in  modified  form.  They  make 
the  old  confessions  of  the  church  their  anchorage  ground, 
and  they  follow  the  dogmatic  method  in  presenting  the 
old  truth.  In  their  point  of  approach  and  departure  and 
in  their  methods  they  differ  widely,  and  there  is  a  good 
deal  of  variety  in  their  preaching.  Some  of  them  are 
strongly  rhetorical  in  their  tendencies.  Some  of  them 
are  prevaihngly  ethical,  some  are  characteristically  BibUcal, 
others  are  strongly  emotional  and  pietistic  and  others 
still  are  vigorously  polemical. 

I.  To  the  highly  rhetorical  and  popularly  effective 
confessional  preachers  belonged  Glaus  Harms,  to  whom 
reference  has  already  been  made.  He  was  a  prominent 
influence  in  starting  the  confessional  movement  in  the 
early  part  of  the  last  century,  and  a  vigorous  promoter 
of  it  throughout  his  entire  life.  Originally  a  rationalist, 
he  was  rescued  by  Schleiermacher's  "Discourses,"  which 
soon  after  their  pubhcation  fell  one  evening  into  his  hands 
and  which  in  his  eagerness  he  devoured,  it  is  said,  at  a 
single  sitting.  These  discourses  contributed  to  him  "an 
eternal  movement,"  and  the  movement  set  him  against  the 
rationahsm  of  his  day,  of  which  he  became  one  of  the  most 
vigorous  antagonists.  In  imitation  of  Luther  he  published 
ninety-five  theses  against  the  new  popery  of  reason  and 
against  theological  latitudinarianism  and  other  ecclesi- 
astical evils  of  his  day  as  he  conceived  them.  He  was  a 
Bibhcal  preacher  after  a  sort,  although  preferring  the  topi- 
cal method,  holding  that  the  preacher  "may  neither  add 


140  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

to  nor  take  away  from  the  teachings  of  the  Scriptures," 
and  that  it  is  his  function  not  only  to  explain,  but  to  "  illus- 
trate the  Scriptures."  But  he  held  also  that  such  use  of 
the  Scriptures  must  be  "within  the  Hmits  of  the  teachings 
of  the  church,  whose  dogmas  are  commands J^  ^  Although 
stoutly  orthodox  and  defending  church  doctrines  with  rude 
vigor,  he  did  not,  however,  follow  the  method  that  was 
common  with  the  dogmatists  of  a  previous  period.  He 
was  individualistic  to  an  extreme.  He  disUked  the  formal 
and  stately  style  of  Reinhard  and  his  school,  and  preferred 
the  offhand,  unconventional,  popular  style  of  Luther, 
which  he  made  his  model.  He  sought  to  reach  the  heart 
directly  and  by  no  roundabout  process,  holding  Vt^ith 
Tholuck  that  it  is  not  necessary  nor  possible  most  effec- 
tively to  reach  it  by  elaborate  methods  that  appeal  to  the 
understanding.  He  was  a  man  of  intense  feeling  and  was 
possessed  of  a  Uvely  imagination  that  was  caught  by  the 
historic  drapery  of  the  old  Lutheran  orthodoxy,  as  his 
practical  sense  was  caught  by  its  objective  reahsm.  With 
the  subjective  subtleties  and  uncertainties  of  Schleiermacher 
and  his  school  he  was  constitutionally  out  of  sympathy. 
He  rejected  all  elaboration  for  his  sermons,  in  his  offhand 
fashion  even  advocating  a  certain  rudeness  of  diction,  and 
a  certain  neghge  style  in  general,  to  which  in  his  own 
preaching  he  was  faithful.  It  has  been  described  as 
"angular,  sharp,  pungent,  Uke  spikes  and  nails."  His 
figures  are  striking,  frequently  quaint,  sometimes  grotesque, 
and  thought  and  illustration  are  Hkely  to  be  far  fetched. 
His  quaintness  has  the  effect  of  a  certain  sort  of  originahty, 
and  in  fact  there  is  often  much  in  his  line  of  thought  that 
is  unique,  as  in  his  diction  that  is  striking.  His  preaching 
was  the  utterance  of  high-wrought  emotion.  It  was  dra- 
matic in  intensity,  full  of  odd  conceits,  Hke  the  early  preach- 
ing of  Spurgeon,  abounding  in  citations  from  poetry  and  in 
old  proverbs.     IndividuaUstic  and  capricious,  he  rejected 

*  Stiebritz's  "  Zur  Geschichte  der  Predigt,"  45. 


THE   GERMAN   PULPIT  141 

the  use  of  BibKcal  texts  in  his  preaching,  when  he  was  so 
incUned  or  when  it  suited  his  purpose,  and,  strongly 
devoted  to  Biblical  revelation  though  he  was,  he  defended 
the  rejection  with  vigor,  holding  that  in  the  broader  es- 
timate preaching  stands  independently  upon  its  own  foun- 
dation. Rude  as  he  was  in  his  colloquial  homehness,  he 
not  infrequently  stated  the  themes  and  the  topics  of  his 
sermons  in  such  way  as  to  give  them  an  elegant  rhythmic 
movement.  For  example,  in  a  sermon  from  Ps.  Ixxiii,  25, 
26,  entitled  "  Loss  and  Gain,"  a  sermon  crowded  with  pithy 
sayings  and  ad  hominem  appeal  after  a  short  sympathetic 
address  to  those  in  the  congregation  who  had  suffered  loss, 
without  stating  any  theme,  but  rather  suggesting  the  object 
of  the  discourse,  he  announces  his  topics  in  a  semirhyth- 
mical  manner  as  follows:  I.  Gold  lost  is  something  lost. 
II.  Honor  lost  is  much  lost.  III.  God  lost  is  everything 
lost.  As  a  preacher  he  was  quite  unique,  and  as  far  remote 
from  the  ordinary  type  of  German  preaching  as  Guthrie 
from  that  of  Scottish  preaching.  He  was  of  peasant  origin, 
and,  although  an  educated  man,  was  a  born  preacher  for 
the  populace.  He  knew  the  popular  mind  and  heart  as 
perhaps  no  other  preacher  of  his  day.  He  had  great  power 
in  individuaUzing  his  hearers,  was  skilful  in  the  ad  homi- 
nem appeal,  as  was  Spurgeon,  of  whom  in  many  things 
he  reminds  us,  and  cherished  the  ambition  not  merely  of 
reforming  German  theology,  by  leading  it  out  of  the  toils 
of  rationaUsm,  but  of  reforming  the  method  of  German 
preaching,  in  both  of  which  ambitions,  especially  the 
latter,  he  was  measurably  successful.  Inimitable  and  un- 
desirable as  a  model,  he  had  many  followers  in  some  of 
his  pulpit  methods.  In  many  of  the  larger  communities  of 
Germany  there  have  been  many  preachers  since  his  day 
who  have  combined  much  of  his  vigorous  orthodoxy, 
ardent  piety,  and  popular  impressiveness. 

2.    There  is  a  class  of  confessional  preachers  who  give 
themselves  chiefly  to  the  task  of  interpreting  and  enforcing 


142  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

the  ethical  or  in  general  the  practical  aspects  of  the  dogmas 
of  the  church.  They  are  not  supremely  interested  in 
church  dogmas  simply  as  such,  and  do  not  accept  indoc- 
trination as  the  supreme  aim  of  preaching.  They  have 
found  the  ethical  bearings  of  church  doctrine,  and  are 
intent  upon  applying  them.  They  may  be  called  ethical 
confessionahsts,  and  in  this  they  show  the  influence  of 
modern  hfe  upon  them.  Among  them  may  be  mentioned 
Harless,  Reinhard's  successor  as  court  preacher  at  Dresden, 
connected  also  with  Leipzig  University  as  university 
preacher,  and  finally  president  of  the  Munich  Consistory 
and  editor  of  the  Journal  for  Protestantism  and  the 
Church.  Contemporary  with  Harms  and  Hengstenberg, 
he  outUved  them  both  and  died  in  the  last  quarter  of  the 
century.  He  had  nothing  of  the  rude  vigor  of  the  one 
nor  the  polemical  fierceness  of  the  other.  He  was  one  of 
the  first  theologians  of  his  day,  a  man  of  extensive  learning, 
of  critical  scholarship,  and  an  interesting  and  effective 
preacher,  of  much  emotional  fervor,  and  of  an  elevated, 
dignified,  and  more  concrete  style  than  is  common  with  the 
university  preachers  of  his  school.  He  was  author  of  the 
first  work  on  Christian  ethics  that  was  issued  in  Germany 
in  the  nineteenth  century.  It  is  an  exposition  of  the  ethical 
content  of  the  rehgion  of  redemption  and  discloses  the 
Lutheran  dogmatic  point  of  view.  It  discusses  the  moral 
bearings  of  the  great  truths  of  redemptive  religion  as 
represented  in  the  Lutheran  confessions.  It  is  eminently 
fruitful  in  suggestion,  devout  and  dignified  in  feeling, 
elevated  in  diction,  helpful  to  the  Christian  hfe,  and  is 
worthy  of  any  man's  careful  study.  He  published  several 
volumes  of  sermons,  among  them  twenty  discourses  on  the 
"Kingdom  and  the  Power  of  Christ."  They  suggest  the 
general  substance  and  aim  of  his  preaching.  Its  aim  is  to 
exalt  Christ  as  the  Lord  and  Redeemer  of  men,  and  to 
present  him  to  them  as  their  helper  in  sin  and  distress. 
His  message  was  one  of  hope  and  good  cheer.     He  could 


THE   GERMAN   PULPIT  143 

not  separate  the  moral  ideal  from  its  exemplification  in 
Christ,  and  never  failed  to  bring  the  hopes  and  promises  of 
the  Gospel  of  Grace  into  relation  with  the  claims  of  moral 
law.  In  the  freshness  of  his  thought,  the  clearness  of  his 
outline,  the  perspicuity,  dignity,  and  concreteness  of  his 
literary  style,  he  was  an  acceptable  preacher,  not  only  to 
university  audiences  but  to  the  common  people,  and  in  the 
highest  sense  of  the  term  may  from  the  German  point  of 
view  be  called  a  popular  preacher. 

3.  As  representative  of  what  may  be  called  the  class 
of  Bibhcal  confessionahsts,  Rudolph  Stier  of  Eisleben  may 
be  named.  He  was  a  warm  friend  of  the  chief  represent- 
atives of  the  mediating  school,  but  he  held  tenaciously  to 
the  old  faith  of  the  Lutheran  church,  and  especially  to 
somewhat  extreme  views  of  BibUcal  inspiration.  He  was 
well  known  to  the  theological  students  of  this  country'  and 
of  England  of  a  past  generation  by  his  edifying  work, 
"The  Words  of  the  Lord  Jesus."  He  was  a  man  of 
devout  and  pious  heart  and  of  practical  tact.  He  inter- 
preted Scripture  in  the  spirit  and  somewhat  in  the  manner 
of  Bengel,  of  whose  "  Gnomon  "  he  was  a  diUgent  student. 
He  pubUshed  several  volumes  of  sermons,  all  of  which  are 
of  the  expository  and  apphcatory  sort.  The  themes  and 
the  topics  of  the  discourses  are  largely  stated  in  BibHcal  lan- 
guage, are  simple  in  outHne  and  therefore  easily  followed, 
and  their  subject-matter  is  full  of  quickening  and  edifying 
suggestion.  He  pubhshed  a  volume  on  preaching,  in 
which  he  called  for  a  return  to  the  old  Bibhcal  method. 
He  advocated  what  Americans  call  the  evangehstic  type 
of  preaching,  and  is  called  by  Germans  "mission  preach- 
ing," and  he  distinguished  between  it  and  the  pastoral 
type  with  which  ordinary  homiletics  deals.  His  discourses, 
accordingly,  are  of  the  animating  and  quickening  sort, 
often  semimystical  and  vague,  but  full  of  genuine,  devout, 
and  earnest  German  feehng. 

4.  There  is    a   class  of    confessional    preachers    that 


144  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

represent  in  an  eminent  degree  what  may,  with  modifica- 
tions, be  called  the  pietistic  tendency.  The  entire  school, 
indeed,  has  revealed  the  influence  of  an  awakened  religious 
life  as  the  dogmatic  AngHcans  of  England  have  disclosed 
it,  and  it  perpetuates  much  of  the  old  pietistic  spirit.  It  is 
far  removed  from  the  dead  orthodoxy  of  a  former  period. 
But  there  are  those  who  are  more  highly  emotional  and 
pietistic  in  their  preaching  than  others,  and  may  be  com- 
pared with  the  so-called  evangehcal  Anghcan  preachers. 
Among  the  best  known  to  the  EngUsh  and  American  public 
was  Fried  rich  W.  Krummacher.  He  was  a  Halle  gradu- 
ate, and  received  strong  incentive  from  Knapp,  the  orthodox 
supernaturaUst,  in  opposition  to  the  rationalism  of  Weg- 
schneider,  who  also  was  his  teacher.  He  became  a  successor 
of  Schleiermacher  at  Trinity  Church,  Berlin,  and  by  the 
appointment  of  the  then  Prussian  king  was  subsequently 
made  court  preacher  at  Potsdam.  He  was  appointed 
professor  of  theology  at  the  seminary  of  the  American 
German  Reformed  church  in  the  state  of  Pennsylvania, 
but  decHned  in  favor  of  Professor  Schaff.  His  biographical 
discourses  on  the  prophet  "  Ehjah  the  Tishbite"  and  upon 
"  EUsha  "  are  well  known  and  have  been  widely  read.  The 
volume  entitled  "The  Suffering  Saviour,"  originally  a  vol- 
ume of  sermons  on  the  Passion  of  our  Lord,  condensed, 
modified  somewhat,  and  translated  into  EngHsh,  illustrates 
still  more  fully  his  homiletic  peculiarities.  He  was  stoutly 
orthodox  as  well  as  intensely  pietistic,  holding  that  it  is 
useless  to  talk  of  a  Christian  church  where  the  Godhood 
and  the  God  manhood  of  Christ  are  denied.  His  preaching 
was  highly  emotional,  setting  forth  in  vivid  poetic  imagery 
the  great  outstanding  doctrines  of  the  orthodox  faith.  His 
discourses  are  dramatic  in  tone,  highly  exclamatory,  direct 
in  appeal,  continuously  as  well  as  at  the  close,  clear  in  out- 
line, with  topics  stated  at  the  outset  and  repeated  in  the 
discussion,  a  topical  preacher  using  categories  that  are 
BibUcally   suggested.     They  are  dogmatic   in  tone   and 


THE  GERMAN   PULPIT  145 

method,  often  polemical,  with  a  certain  lofty  scorn  for 
the  poor  unbeliever  and  with  a  not  infrequent  ringing  note 
of  irony  in  his  denunciation  of  modern  unbeUef,  but  are 
fresh  and  striking  and  sometimes  quaint,  with  a  certain 
epigrammatic  brevity  and  at  the  same  time  rhythmic 
grace  in  the  statement  of  themes  and  topics.  He  also 
reminds  us  in  many  respects  of  Spurgeon,  and  he  illus- 
trates the  power  of  a  great  preacher  to  make  the  old  truths 
of  the  church  attractive,  and  he  discloses  their  responsive- 
ness to  the  realistic  and  at  the  same  time  highly  imaginative 
method  of  treatment.  He  was  a  natural  orator,  in  this 
somewhat  exceptional  among  German  preachers,  with 
a  massive  personality  and  a  sonorous  voice,  capable  of 
producing  strong  oratorical  effects. 

5.  To  the  class  of  highly  polemical  confessionalists  be- 
longed preeminently  Hengstenberg  of  BerUn,  to  whom  also 
reference  has  already  been  made.  He  does  not  occupy  a 
prominent  or  permanent  place  simply  as  a  preacher,  and 
has  made  no  valuable  contribution  to  German  preaching. 
But  on  account  of  his  eminence  in  the  confessional  school 
he  deserves  a  passing  notice.  He  was  accepted  as  the 
leader  of  the  orthodox  party.  He  had  great  vogue  in 
Berhn,  and  when  he  died  in  1869  the  writer  recalls  the  loud 
lamentations  of  the  theological  journals  of  his  school  and 
of  the  public  press  of  Berhn  in  general,  as  if  the  sun  had 
been  blotted  from  the  theological  heavens.  He  had,  in 
fact,  no  successor  who  was  his  equal  in  abihty  as  a  leader, 
and  happily  none  that  was  his  equal  in  polemical  virulence. 
He  was  the  great  orthodox  warhorse,  a  man  of  arrogant 
spirit,  of  loose  and  abusive  tongue,  not  always  overscru- 
pulous in  ecclesiastical  and  theological  warfare,  lacking 
in  candor,  unreasonable  and  extravagant,  an  ecclesias- 
tical pohtician  who  coveted  and  who  won  the  favor  of  the 
poHtical  conservatives  of  the  Prussian  government,  but 
withal  a  man  of  notable  intellectual  power,  and  of  wide- 
reaching  influence  as  an  ecclesiastical  leader.     Originally 


146  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

of  the  Reformed  church,  which  to  a  large  extent  was  ab- 
sorbed in  the  Union,  he  was  won  over  to  the  opposition 
and  spent  the  remainder  of  his  Ufe  in  fighting  those  whom 
he  regarded  as  enemies  of  the  faith  once  dehvered  to  the 
Lutheran  saints.  As  a  public  speaker  his  power  of  state- 
ment was  notable,  and  he  was  capable  of  making  a  power- 
ful impression  upon  an  audience.  In  all  his  writings 
he  showed  a  corresponding  power. 

6.  There  is  a  class  of  modified  confessional  preachers 
who  are  more  moderate  and  modern  in  spirit  and  tone. 
In  their  ecclesiastical  theories  some  of  them  are  high 
churchmen,  and  are  extremely  conservative  in  pohtics,  hold- 
ing tenaciously  to  the  state  church  as  the  defence  of  ortho- 
doxy. It  is  the  school  to  which  DeUtzsch  and  Vilmar 
belonged.  Many  of  them,  however,  have  come  under  the 
influence  of  modern  ideas,  have  close- touching  points  v^dth 
the  evangehcal  Uberals  or  the  mediating  school,  would 
interpret  the  faith  of  the  church  measurably  in  the  light 
of  modern  culture,  and  believe  in  theological  progress. 
Two  or  three  of  the  more  prominent  representatives  of 
this  moderate  confessional  tendency  may  be  mentioned. 
Kahnis,  professor  of  theology  at  Leipzig,  and  canon  of  one 
of  the  cathedrals  of  Saxony,  was  one  of  them.  He  is  fa- 
vorably known  in  his  work  on  the  Doctrine  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  He  had  affiliations  with  the  school  of  Schleier- 
macher,  and  his  variations  from  Lutheran  orthodoxy  are 
recognized  in  his  BibUology  and  Christology.  He  was  a 
university  preacher  and  his  discourses  bear  the  academic 
mark.  Two  volumes  of  these  discourses  he  published. 
They  are  thorough  in  their  discussion  of  doctrinal  subjects, 
and  are  not  popular  in  style.  Yet  they  are  full  of  suggestive 
Biblical  material  and  abound  in  illustrations  from  the 
realm  of  history  and  of  nature.  They  suggest  a  back- 
ground of  philosophic  culture  in  the  preacher,  illustrate 
his  skill  in  psychological  analysis,  and  are  not  lacking  in 
ethical  cogency.     A  devout  spirit  pervades  his  discourses 


THE   GERMAN   PULPIT  147 

as  well  as  other  writings  and  they  are  not  without  traces 
of  the  Hterary  and  artistic  gifts  with  which  he  was  en- 
dowed.^ He  handled  his  subjects  in  a  simple  and  clear 
manner  and  expressed  himself  in  a  dignified  but  also  in  a 
sympathetic  and  somewhat  illustrative  manner. 

Luthardt,  professor  also  of  theology  at  Leipzig  and  canon 
of  the  cathedral  to  which  Kahnis  was  attached,  was  a 
prominent  academic  preacher  of  this  school.  He  is  well 
known  in  his  apologetic  lectures  on  the  "  Fundamental 
Truths  of  Christianity,"  and  on  the  "Moral  Truths  of 
Christianity,"  which  have  been  translated  and  pubUshed  by 
the  Clarkes  of  Edinburgh.  In  his  communion  he  was  a 
preacher  of  wide  reputation,  and  pubHshed  the  product  of 
his  preaching  activity  in  five  volumes  of  sermons.  His 
Hterary  quahty  was  noteworthy.  He  spoke  with  clearness, 
conciseness,  and  grace,  illuminating  his  discourses  vvdth 
concrete  examples  and  figurative  illustrations.  His  out- 
hnes  are  clear  and  logical,  and  his  introductions  full  and 
luminous.  Like  all  German  preachers,  he  aimed  at  ethical 
and  spiritual  impression,  but  he  was  also  an  instructive 
preacher,  seeking  edification  in  part  by  enlarging  and  cor- 
recting the  hearer's  knowledge  of  the  great  truths  of 
Christianity. 

Thermin,  who,  although  a  Frenchman  by  birth,  and 
sharing  the  rhetorical  gifts  of  his  race,  was  a  Berlin  pastor, 
court  preacher  there,  and  subsequently  professor  of  homi- 
letics  in  the  University,  may  be  numbered  with  this  wing 
of  the  confessional  school,  although  without  the  harsh  and 
dogmatic  tone  that  characterized  some  of  his  associates. 
He  was  a  most  fertile  preacher  and  has  left  behind  ten 
volumes  of  sermons  in  illustration  of  his  productiveness. 
He  was  a  topical  preacher,  after  the  characteristic  French 
method,  with  a  facile,  suggestive  use  of  texts,  orderly 
method,  polished  diction,  and  was  most  skilful  in  con- 
ducting a  soHd  argument  in  an  attractive  rhetorical  manner. 

*  Lichtenberger's  "  History  of  German  Theology,"  etc.,  460. 


148  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

He  was  a  man  of  genuine  poetic  temperament,  fascinating 
in  the  color  of  his  hterary  style  and  in  the  striking  char- 
acter of  his  themes.  His  work  entitled  "Eloquence  a 
Virtue,"  translated  by  the  late  Professor  Shedd,  in  which 
he  discusses  the  ethical  significance  of  the  work  of 
preaching,  has  had  wide  circulation  and  is  of  great 
homiletic  value.  It  suggests  the  ethical  quaUty  of  his 
own  preaching. 

ii.  The  hberal  school  of  preachers  represents  a  great 
variety  of  philosophical  and  theological  tendencies,  greater 
probably  than  any  other  class  of  German  preachers. 
More  fully  than  any  other  school  are  they  under  the  in- 
fluence of  modern  German  scientific  culture.  They  wish 
to  be  regarded,  and  doubtless  are  entitled  to  the  distinc- 
tion, of  being  the  representatives  in  the  pulpit  by  pre- 
eminence of  modern  thought,  conserving  in  the  sphere 
of  religion  the  interests  of  science.  They  are  for  the 
most  part  poHtical  as  well  as  theological  liberals,  defend- 
ing the  interests  of  liberty  in  both  spheres.  The  term 
"rationalist"  is  no  longer  applicable  to  them,  for  ration- 
alism has  undergone  great  changes  and  no  longer  means 
what  it  once  meant.  If  the  term  is  made  to  mean, 
in  general,  the  tendency  to  minimize  the  supernatural 
element  in  Christianity,  then  these  Kberals  may  be  called 
rationalists,  for  in  this  they  are  in  general  agreement.  But 
this  is  a  modified  and  illegitimate  use  of  the  term.  Some 
of  them  are  followers  of  Hegel,  are  adherents  of  the  de- 
structive school  of  Bibhcal  criticism,  and  are  extreme  radi- 
cals. Some  follow  the  general  lead  of  Strauss,  and  some 
of  Baur,  and  others  of  the  later  ideaHstic  school.  Some 
belong  to  the  left  wing  of  the  school  of  Schleiermacher  and 
others  to  the  school  of  Kant.  The  new  idealistic  school 
of  critics  has  probably  the  larger  following  among  the 
liberal  preachers  of  our  day. 

I.  Of  the  old  rationahstic  school  of  preachers  there 
are  probably  but  few  left  in  the  German  pulpit.    There  are 


THE  GERMAN   PULPIT  149 

none  of  the  old-fashioned  pre-Kantian  rationalists,  whom 
Kant,  as  well  as  Schleiermacher,  successfully  fought. 
Wegschneider  of  Halle,  whom  Tholuck  and  Miiller  an- 
tagonized, was  one  of  the  Kantian  rationaUsts  who  made 
himself  felt  in  the  University  pulpit.  Paulus  was  another. 
Rohr,  superintendent  of  Weimar,  known  as  the  Weimar 
pope,  on  account  of  his  dogmatism  and  arrogance,  and 
Ammon  of  Dresden,  knowTi  also,  and  for  the  same  reason, 
as  pope  of  Dresden,  were  also  of  this  school.  Of  all  forms 
of  mysticism  and  pietism  they  were  vigorous  opponents, 
and  advocates  of  what  they  understood  to  be  the  religion 
of  reason.  But  some  of  the  most  radical  representatives 
of  the  hberal  camp  have  been  adherents  of  the  school  of 
Hegel  and  have  followed  the  old  Tubingen  critics.  They 
start  with  the  assumption  that  the  supernatural  elements 
in  the  Gospel  narratives  are  unhistoric  because  antece- 
dently improbable,  if  not  impossible.  God,  who  in  his 
progressive  self-disclosure  distributes  himself  throughout 
humanity  as  a  whole  and  throughout  the  whole  course 
of  human  history,  cannot  be  contained  in  a  single  historic 
personality.  An  absolute  religion  cannot  be  revealed 
by  any  single  historic  character.  To  conceive  of  Christ  as 
a  supernatural  character  is  a  contradiction  of  the  whole 
course  of  historic  development.  In  explaining  Chris- 
tianity, therefore,  these  men  assume  that  it  has  undergone 
various  transformations  by  the  operation  of  perverting 
agencies.  We  have  not  the  original  Christianity  of  Christ 
at  all.  The  ideal  supernaturalism  of  Paul  is  one  of  these 
perverting  agencies.  To  get  back  to  primitive  Chris- 
tianity we  must  strip  it  of  its  Pauline  supematurahsm. 
These  views  may  be  shared  by  the  new  liberals,  who  do 
not  follow  Hegel  and  the  older  Tubingen  critics,  but  not 
with  all  the  presuppositions  or  preassumptions  involved. 
Prominent  among  the  preachers  who  made  an  honest 
attempt  to  fit  Christianity  into  the  framework  of  the 
Hegelian    philosophy    was     Marheinecke,    professor    of 


I50  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

theology  in  Berlin,  and  colleague  with  and  ultimately 
successor  to  Schleiermacher  at  Trinity  Church.  It  has 
been  said  of  Schleiermacher  that  it  is  surprising  how  much 
Christianity  he  succeeded  in  getting  inside  his  pantheistic 
framework.  The  remark  is  more  manifestly  applicable 
to  his  Hegelian  successor.  His  success  in  Hegehanizing 
Christianity  may  be  questioned.  But  the  honesty  of  his 
effort  and  the  genuineness  of  his  Christian  spirit  there  is 
no  occasion  to  doubt.  His  words  of  reverence  for  Christ 
have  the  ring  of  reality.  He  declares  that  only  as  our 
spirit  is  illuminated  by  the  spirit  of  Christ  are  we  able  to 
comprehend  divine  things.  He  proclaims  that  Christ 
is  as  essential  to  our  life  as  hght  to  our  eyes,  or  as  the  sun 
to  day,  and  as  to  the  necessity  of  His  death  he  says  that 
"the  grandest,  the  dearest,  and  highest  of  blessings  can  be 
obtained  only  by  the  grandest,  dearest,  and  highest  of  all 
sacrifices."  He  was  a  man  of  most  benignant  spirit,  and 
despite  the  depth  of  his  thought  and  his  strongly  scientific 
tendencies,  he  was  in  a  worthy  sense,  from  the  German 
point  of  view,  a  popular  preacher.  His  exposition  was 
thorough  and  comprehensive  and  his  style  elevated,  clear, 
and  elegant.  Several  volumes  of  sermons  remain  to  per- 
petuate his  memory  as  a  preacher. 

2.  The  new  school  of  liberal  preachers  is  representative 
of  views  that  have  been  modified  by  ethical  and  religious 
as  well  as  philosophical  influences.  Some  of  them,  Uke 
Pfleiderer  of  BerHn,  interpret  Christianity  in  the  hght  of 
Hegel  and  of  Schleiermacher.  Others,  Hke  the  Ritschlian 
school,  among  whom  Kaftan,  Dorner's  successor,  may  be 
numbered,  in  the  Hght  of  Kant  and  Schleiermacher.  We 
cannot  fail  to  detect  the  influence  of  Schleiermacher  es- 
pecially in  the  modifications  German  hberahsm  has  under- 
gone. Upon  the  old  rationahstic  foundation  they  have 
engrafted  new  and  richer  elements  of  subjective  rehgion, 
and  although  following  the  modem  philosophers  many  of 
them  profess  to  represent  Luther's  fundamental  religious 


THE   GERMAN   PULPIT  151 

principles.  De  Wette  was  one  of  the  first  to  sympathize 
with  Schleiermacher  in  the  effort  to  differentiate  religious 
thought  from  reHgious  feeling,  and  to  defend  religion  upon 
its  o^^^l  ground  as  an  inner,  self -evidencing  reahty.  They 
find  in  various  forms  of  subjective  experience,  ethical  and 
spiritual  as  well  as  rational,  a  test  for  all  alleged  external 
revelation.  They  in  general  rule  out  the  miracles  as  hav- 
ing, in  their  apprehension,  no  significance  for  the  rehgious 
life.  Christianity  is  of  supreme  value  only  for  its  ethical 
and  spiritual  principles.  They  constitute  the  nucleus  of 
the  Protestant  Union,  and  stand  between  the  older  radical 
and  the  orthodox  and  mediating  schools.  Their  attitude 
is  one  of  freedom  with  respect  to  the  creeds  of  the  churches, 
Hke  the  hberals  of  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States, 
although  some  of  them  perhaps  are  nearer  to  what  would 
call  itself  an  evangehcal  basis.  Most  of  them  also  are 
committed  to  the  hberation  of  rehgion  from  poHtical  as  well 
as  theological  domination,  and  are  political  as  well  as  theo- 
logical hberals. 

Hase  of  Jena,  a,  man  of  mystical  tendencies,  a  vigorous 
opponent  of  the  old  rationahstic  school,  comparable  with 
Dr.  Edmund  H.  Sears,  the  American  Unitarian,  was  one 
of  the  most  interesting  representatives  of  the  Hberal 
school,  but  is  better  known  to  the  EngUsh- speaking  world 
through  his  theological  than  through  his  homiletic 
products. 

Ruckert,  also  of  Jena,  Uke  Schleiermacher  educated 
at  the  Moravian  school  at  Niesky,  at  once  a  Kantian  and  a 
follower  of  Schleiermacher,  was  one  of  the  ablest  and  most 
effective  preachers  of  this  school.  Lichtenberger  ^  says  of 
him:  "He  attached  great  importance  to  preaching.  His 
sermons  were  distinguished  by  a  logical,  vigorous  concate- 
nation of  thought,  great  popularity,  practical  penetration, 
and  profound  seriousness.  He  had  a  burning  love  for  the 
poor.  Vahant,  manly,  and  modest  he  loved  to  re\dve  the 
*  "  History  of  German  Theology  in  the  19th  century,"  550.  , 


152  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

religious  recollections  of  the  past,  while  attaching  himself 
to  a  more  rational  and  more  critical  theology." 

Schwartz,  court  preacher  at  Gotha,  follower  of  Hegel 
and  of  Schleiermacher,  is  also  a  representative  of  the 
speculative  school  of  Uberal  preachers.  The  influence  of 
Hegel  is  seen  in  his  daring  speculations  and  in  his  icono- 
clastic tendencies,  which,  however,  do  not  appear  in  his 
preaching.  The  influence  of  Schleiermacher  is  seen  in  his 
devout  and  earnest  religious  feeUng  and  in  his  exuberant 
romanticist  enthusiasm.  His  sermons  are  pervaded  by 
the  liberal  spirit  of  his  time  and  endeavor  to  voice  the  needs 
of  his  time,  but,  as  is  common  with  modem  German  Hberal 
preachers,  there  is  no  tone  of  destructive  radicahsm.  He 
thinks  that  the  traditional  theology  has  dehumanized 
Christianity,  and  he  calls  for  a  return  to  the  Christ,  who  is 
the  true  and  complete  ideal  of  humanity.  Such  a 
Christ  only  can  be  the  world's  Redeemer.  He  portrays 
with  great  skill  and  force  this  ideal  humanity  of  Christ, 
and  he  illustrates  in  an  eminent  degree  the  power  of  the 
German  preacher  in  presenting  his  thoughts,  however 
liberal  they  may  be,  or  however  variant  from  the  tradi- 
tional theology,  in  the  garb  of  a  quasi-evangelical  piety, 
and  wdth  the  decorations  of  an  imaginative,  emotional, 
and  sentimental  rhetoric.  In  his  emotional  exuberance 
he  sometimes  begins  his  sermon  with  a  reUgious  hymn, 
and  not  infrequently  closes  it  with  an  earnest  prayer,  and 
the  entire  discourse  is  hkely  to  be  filled  wdth  pious  and 
poetic  sentiment,  interspersed  with  most  affectionate 
exclamatory  utterances  to  his  hearers.  Some  of  his  ser- 
mons may  be  found  in  translated  collections  representative 
of  what  is  knov^Ti  as  the  evangehcal  pulpit.^ 

Schenkel  of  Heidelberg,  professor  of  theology,  director 
of  a  preacher's  seminary  there,  and  university  preacher, 
should  be  mentioned  as  a  distinguished  representative 
of  the  hberal  school,  because  of  his  prominence  as  a  sup- 

'  See  "  The  Foreign  Protestant  Pulpit,"  London,  1869,  2  vols. 


THE   GERMAN   PULPIT 


153 


porter  of  the  Protestant  Union,  which  originated  in  Heidel- 
berg and  which  has  been  one  of  the  chief  supports  of  the 
liberal  movement.  He  followed  Kant  in  the  stress  he  laid 
upon  the  ethical  element  in  Christianity,  as  his  article 
on  the  conscience  in  the  first  edition  of  the  Real  Encyklo- 
padie  indicates,  looking  askance  at  the  supernatural  and 
minimizing  it.  But  he  also  followed  Schleiermacher  in  his 
opposition  to  the  rationahstic  morahzing  of  the  pulpit, 
that  sought  to  deal  with  the  ethical  needs  of  men  but  failed 
to  satisfy  their  rehgious  wants,  and  also  in  opposition  to 
the  unscientific  dogmatizing  that  was  incompetent  to  meet 
and  grapple  successfully  with  the  principles  of  the  radical 
school  of  critics  as  represented  by  Strauss.  He  was  more 
of  a  rhetorician  than  an  accurate  theological  thinker.  He 
had  notable  skill  as  a  church  leader  and  organizer.  As  a 
preacher  he  was  skilful  in  exegesis,  was  analytical  and 
orderly  in  his  method,  strongly  self-assertive  in  his  ethical 
exaction,  highly  emotional,  appeahng  to  the  hearts  of  his 
hearers,  and  soHcitous  to  awaken  in  them  an  ardent  love 
for  Christ,  to  lead  them  into  the  fellowship  of  His  spirit  and 
to  the  reahzation  of  the  fruits  of  it  in  life.  Holtzman, 
Schenkel's  colleague  at  Heidelberg,  Lypsius  of  Jena,  and 
Hamack  of  Berhn,  are  all  prominent  representatives  of  this 
school,  although  much  more  widely  known  as  theologians 
than  as  preachers.  All  the  men  of  this  school  are  among 
the  most  cultivated,  although  in  general  not  the  most 
popular  preachers  of  Germany. 

iii.  The  preachers  of  the  mediating  school  have  in 
foreign  countries  probably  been  the  most  widely  knovm, 
and  in  so-called  evangelical  circles  the  most  influential  of 
all  the  preachers  of  modem  Germany.  They  are  super- 
naturahsts  and  liberal  evangelicals  and  belong  to  the  right 
wing  of  the  school  of  Schleiermacher,  follovring  Schleier- 
macher on  the  religious  rather  than  on  the  speculative  side, 
and  have  corrected  many  of  his  defects.  In  philosophical 
tendencies  they  are  either  Ivantian  or  Hegelian  of  the  right 


154  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

wing,  in  Biblical  criticism  reasonably  cautious  and  con- 
servative, and  in  politics  they  hold  moderate  views  as  to  the 
problem  of  the  state  church,  in  general  following  Schleier- 
macher  in  this  as  in  other  respects.  They  hold  a  position 
midway  between  confessionaUsm  and  radicaUsm.  They 
are  at  issue  with  the  confessionahsts  with  respect  to  the 
question  of  formal  and  unconditional  subscription  to  the 
creeds  of  the  church,  and  with  respect  to  the  problem  of 
modifying  them  in  order  to  meet  the  demands  of  modem 
thought  and  culture.  But  they  are  at  one  with  them  in  their 
general  efifort  to  conserve  what  is  permanently  true  in  these 
confessions.  They  may  be  called  Biblical  and  experimental 
rather  than  dogmatic  evangeHcals.  Ecclesiastically  they 
are  broad  churchmen,  hostile  to  high-church  theories, 
opposed  to  the  state  church  and  to  denominational  dis- 
tinctions and  are  supporters  of  the  Evangehcal  Union.  In 
their  rejection  of  unconditional  creed  subscription  and  in 
their  devotion  to  ecclesiastical  and  pohtical  hberty  they 
are  in  sympathy  with  the  liberal  school,  but  are  at  issue 
with  them  in  their  rejection  of  the  supernatural  element  in 
Christianity  or  in  their  efforts  to  minimize  its  significance, 
in  their  critical  radicaUsm  and  extreme  subjective  idealism. 
They  hold  to  the  historic  basis  of  Christianity  and  respect 
the  theology  of  the  church.  'Their  influence  upon  German 
evangeUcahsm  has  been  great,  and  more  effectively  than 
any  other  class  of  German  thinkers  and  preachers  have 
they  in  time  past  promoted  the  cause  of  progressive  ortho- 
doxy outside  Germany.  The  theological  representatives 
of  this  school  are  such  men  as  Neander,  the  pupil,  disciple, 
and  personal  friend  of  Schleiermacher,  disclosing  the  mas- 
ter's influence  in  his  conception  of  religion,  his  power  of 
ethical  and  spiritual  analysis,  his  catholic  conception  of  the 
Christian  church  and  love  of  Christian  fellowship,  and 
in  his  spiritual  insight  into  BibUcal  revelation.  Twesten, 
with  Donner  and  Lange  of  Berhn,  Martensen,  the  Dutch 
theologian  and  friend  of  Dorner,  and  Hagenbach  of  Zurich, 


THE   GERMAN   PULPIT  1 55 

belong  to  this  group.  Beyschlag  should  be  called  a  liberal 
evangelical  of  this  school,  although  nearer  to  the  radical 
school  than  those  already  named.  Richard  Rothe,  to 
whom,  with  others,  reference  will  be  made  later  on,  the 
greatest  of  German  theologians  since  Schleiermacher, 
although  in  his  theological  independence  he  in  a  sort  allied 
himself  with  the  liberal  school  by  joining  the  Protestant 
Union,  should  be  remembered  as  the  ablest  representative 
of  the  mediating  school.  Beck  and  AuberUn,  although 
Bibhcal  reaHsts  and  in  a  sort  disciples  of  Bengel  and 
Oethinger,  laying  much  emphasis  upon  miracle  and  proph- 
ecy as  external  evidences  in  the  defence  of  Christianity, 
should  also  be  classed  with  the  mediating  school,  which,  as 
may  be  readily  seen,  embraces  a  great  variety  of  theological 
tendencies. 

In  the  transformations  of  the  previous  century,  pietism, 
like  rationahsm,  was,  as  we  have  seen,  disintegrated,  and 
but  few  if  any  of  this  school  are  left.  Its  forces  have  been 
scattered  and  drawn  off  into  new  alHances  in  accordance 
with  prevaihng  theological  tendencies.  Some  of  them,  as 
already  suggested,  have  been  associated  with  the  confes- 
sionaHsts.  The  Krummachers  and  the  Hofackers  of 
Wiirtemberg  were  high  churchmen  in  their  conceptions  of 
sin  and  redemption,  but  in  the  emphasis  they  placed  upon 
loving,  personal  fellowship  with  Christ  and  in  the  emo- 
tional and  sentimental  quahty  of  their  preaching  they  were 
of  a  strongly  mystical  and  pietistic  tendency.  Many  who 
have  something  of  the  same  tendency  are  found  with  the 
hberals,  but  the  larger  number  are  found  \\dth  the  mediating 
school.  With  their  rejection  of  the  dogmatic  principle, 
their  respect  for  intellectual  freedom,  and  devotion  to 
theological  progress,  they  combine,  as  perhaps  the  most 
distinctive  characteristic  of  the  school,  reverence  for  and 
exaltation  of  the  rehgion  of  the  heart,  disclosing  in  this 
preeminently  the  influence  of  Schleiermacher. 

The  representatives  of  this  school  who  have  been  par- 


156  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

ticularly  interested  in  the  problems  of  practical  theology, 
and  have  been  prominent,  acceptable,  and  influential 
preachers,  are  numerous,  and  they  have  occupied  positions 
of  influence  as  church  superintendents,  counsellors  of  the 
consistory,  court  preachers,  pastors,  and  university  preachers. 
But  they  are  also  found  in  the  humbler  walks  of  the  Chris- 
'tian  ministry,  and  they  are  everywhere  at  once  a  Hberating 
and  conserving  influence  in  the  German  churches.  I  select 
a  few  representative  names  that  are  well  known  in  homi- 
letics  as  in  theology. 

I.  One  of  the  ablest  and  most  prominent  representa- 
tives of  this  school,  who  followed  Schleiermacher  in  his 
conception  of  religion  and  in  his  interest  in  the  problems  of 
practical  theology,  was  Karl  Immanuel  Nitsch.  The  son  of 
a  Lutheran  minister  who  was  a  follower  of  Kant  and 
who  gave  his  son  the  philosopher's  name,  he  was  thor- 
oughly grounded  in  the  Kantian  philosophy,  but  regarded  it 
as  defective  on  the  religious  side.  Independently  he  arrived 
at  the  position  that  rehgion  has  a  sphere  of  its  own  and  is 
not  dependent  upon  philosophy.  That  the  current  of 
thought  in  his  day,  outside  Schleiermacher's  immediate 
circle,  was  setting  in  the  direction  of  a  nonspeculative 
and  experimental  type  of  theology  is  evident  from  the  fact 
that  when  Nitsch  was  examined  for  the  doctor's  degree, 
Reinhard,  who  had  charge  of  his  examination,  charged  him 
with  "Schleiermacherizing,"  to  wliich  he  was  able  to  reply 
that  in  fact  he  had  not  read  Schleiermacher  at  all.  The 
remark,  however,  sent  him  to  the  study  of  Schleiermacher, 
which  was  done  in  a  characteristically  independent  manner, 
and  a  warm  friendship  sprang  up  between  the  two  men. 
Schleiermacher  did  him  the  honor  to  say  that  he  would  prefer 
either  his  commendation  or  his  censure  to  that  of  any  other 
man.  The  two  men  are  in  entire  agreement  in  the  position 
that  religion  finds  its  centre  in  the  domain  of  feeUng  and 
that  theological  investigation  deals  primarily  with  the  realm 
of  Christian  experience,  and  that  the  investigator  need  not 


THE   GERMAN   PULPIT  157 

enter  the  realm  of  speculation  at  all.  But  in  expressing 
itself  the  religious  life  must  carry  with  it  reflective  thought 
on  the  one  side  and  ethical  conviction  on  the  other  side, 
and  must,  therefore,  take  the  form  of  theology  and  of  ethics. 
The  rehgious  life,  therefore,  is  a  combination  of  devout 
feehng,  rational  thought,  and  moral  conviction.  As  such 
it  has  found  expression  historically  in  the  Scriptures. 
These  Scriptures,  as  interpreters  of  rehgious  experience, 
become  normative  for  Christian  truth.  In  this  way  Nitsch 
would  correct  Schleiermacher's  extreme  subjectivity.  He 
was,  therefore,  strong  in  Bibhcal  theology  and  equally 
strong  in  practical  theology,  a  characteristic,  in  fact,  of  the 
entire  mediating  school  of  thinkers  and  preachers.  He 
accompUshed  important  results  in  both  departments. 
Schleiermacher  said  of  him  that  he  was  a  man  in  whom 
"theological  science  and  church  activity  were  united  in  a 
personal  bond."  His  interest  in  Biblical  theology  was 
tributary  to  his  devotion  to  practical  theology.  Hence  his 
desire  to  see  the  two  main  branches  of  the  German  church 
brought  to  a  more  BibHcal  basis  in  their  confessions.  He 
advocated  a  more  Bibhcal  type  of  preaching  in  the  churches. 
In  his  interest  in  church  hfe  he  preferred  the  hfe  of  a  pastor 
to  that  of  a  university  leader.  He  was  connected,  however, 
with  several  universities.  From  Wittenberg  he  went  to 
Halle  early  in  the  last  centur}-.  For  twenty- five  years  he 
was  at  Bonn,  where  he  was  associated  with  Liicke  and  Bleek 
and  with  Niebuhr,  and  he  finally  became  rector  of  Berlin 
University.  Like  Schleiermacher,  he  was,  during  his  entire 
university  career,  a  preacher.  While  at  Wittenberg  and 
Bonn  he  was  at  the  head  of  a  homiletic  seminary  and 
was  a  member  of  the  church  council,  and  at  Berhn  he  was 
Schleiermacher's  successor  at  Trinity  Church.  He  was 
eminently  an  academic  preacher,  as  was  Canon  Mozley  of 
the  Anglican  church,  whom  in  the  quahty  of  intellectual 
soHdity  and  of  moral  seriousness  he  in  a  way  resembles. 
He  was  an  ardent  supporter  of  the  Evangelical  Union,  and 


158  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

drafted  its  subsequently  rejected  creed,  which  was  of  a 
simple,  Biblical,  evangehcal  sort.  As  a  representative 
of  the  mediating  school,  he  stands  between  the  extreme 
subjective  and  the  extreme  objective  tendency.  The  term 
"mediating"  in  fact  originated  in  the  conflict  between  the 
liberals  who  followed  Schleiermacher  in  his  extreme  sub- 
jective tendencies  and  the  high  confessionahsts.  Nitsch 
was  an  influential  teacher,  although  not  popularly  attractive 
in  his  methods.  He  had  something  of  Canon  Mozley's 
defect,  a  slowTiess  in  the  movement  of  his  thought  and  a 
heavy  but  solid  German  style  of  speech  that  in  a  measure 
counterworked  him.  In  early  years  he  lost  the  opportunity 
to  study  the  art  of  pubhc  speech,  which  he  lived  to  regret. 
His  study  of  classic  oratory,  in  which  he  was  a  master,  was 
scientific  rather  than  artistic,  and  the  scientific  always 
dominated  the  artistic  impulse.  But  his  preaching  bore 
the  mark  of  great  elevation  and  gravity  of  mind,  and  of  a 
large  and  noble  heart,  and  to  the  thoughtful  he  was  an  im- 
pressive preacher.  While  at  Bonn,  he  pubHshed  two 
volumes  of  sermons.  Like  all  the  preachers  of  his  school, 
he  laid  chief  stress  upon  the  facts  rather  than  upon  the 
teachings  of  the  religion  of  redemption.  It  is  only  the 
facts  that  adequately  support  and  illustrate  the  teachings, 
and  he  finds  no  saving  significance  in  the  death  of  Christ 
apart  from  his  triumph  over  death,  in  the  great  crowning 
fact  of  historic  Christianity.  As  might  be  expected  from 
so  virile  a  mind,  his  preaching  was  clear,  logical,  and  strong. 
2.  Tholuck  was  one  of  the  most  if  not  the  most  promi- 
nent preacher  of  his  school,  and  in  his  day  probably  had 
no  superior.  In  early  years  a  sceptic,  he  was  rescued  by 
the  influence  of  Neander.  A  devotee  of  secular  Hterature, 
he  was  twenty  years  old  before  he  had  even  a  superficial 
knowledge  of  the  Scriptures.  Without  the  intellectual 
depth  and  strength  and  grasp  that  characterized  Nitsch,  he 
had  an  immense  hunger  for  knowledge  and  was  easily 
acquisitive  and  wide  ranging  in  his  studies.    His  career 


THE   GERMAN   PULPIT  159 

at  Halle,  where  at  twenty-seven  years  of  age  he  was  called 
as  Knapp's  successor  in  theology,  and  where  he  remained 
for  fifty-four  years  and  till  his  death  in  1877,  was  a  most 
notable  and  interesting  one.     In  cooperation  with  Julius 
Miiller  he  won  the  uni\-ersity  back  to  its  former  evangelical 
foundation.     In  philosophy  and  in  theology  he  was  an 
eclectic.     He  was  a  stimulating  teacher,  but  more  of  a 
preacher  even  than  a  teacher.     Few  preachers  or  teachers 
have  kno\ATi  young  men  as  he  knew  them  or  have  ever 
gained  such  ascendency  over  them.     He  laid  stress  upon 
the  ethical  significance  of  preaching.     Preaching  is  "doing, 
not  saying."     The  sermon  has  "  God  for  its  father  and  the 
human  soul  for  its  mother."     Its  proper  subject-matter 
is  the  fundamental  elements  of  the  content  of  Christian 
faith,  or  the  primal  reahties  of  Christian  experience.     Its 
aim  is  to  awaken  the  soul  and  to  edify  in  Christian  piety  and 
virtue.     The  tone  of  his  preaching  was  supremely  earnest 
and  enthusiastic,  at  times  passionately  emotional,  urgent 
in  appeal,  and  ahnost  rhapsodicallypietistic,  often  pathetic, 
and,  German-Uke,  prevaihngly  sentimental.     Ardent  in  his 
affections,  fervid  in  his  emotions,  and  vivid  in  his  imagi- 
nation, he  had  the  touch  of  the  romanticist.     With  a  style 
that  was  singularly  spontaneous  and  affluent,  he  may  be 
called  a  "born  preacher."     He  drew  to  a  considerable 
extent  in  his  preaching  from  the  resources  of  his  human- 
istic  culture.     His  discourses   were  made   attractive  by 
citations   of    poetr\',  and    by  proverbs  and  quaint  wise 
sayings,  and  the  material  was  to  a  large  extent  illustrative. 
He   dealt   with   subjects   that   secured   continuity   to  his 
preaching,  as  seen  in  his  discourses  on  the  Creed,  on  the 
Lord's  Prayer,  and  in  the  volume  entitled  "Light  from 
the  Cross."'    He  aims  at  edification,  but,  in  characteristic 
German  fashion,   he  will  edify  not  by  enlargement^  or 
enrichment  of   rehgious   knowledge,  but   by  quickening, 
ennobling,  and  enriching  rehgious  feehng,  thus  illustrating 
the  prevalent  German  habit  of  gi\ing  persuasion  rather 


l6o  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

than  instruction  the  preponderance  in  the  work  of  edifica- 
tion. This  may  be  seen  somewhat  definitely  in  a  sermon 
on  "The  Hidden  Life,"  from  the  text,  "Ye  are  dead  and 
your  life  is  hid,"  etc.  Col.  iii.  3,  4.  The  theme  is  thrown 
into  the  form  of  a  proposition.  He  accordingly  announces 
that  his  discourse  "shall  be  confined  to  the  proving  of  the 
truth  of  this  sentence."  This  seems  to  commit  him  to  an 
argumentative  or  at  least  a  didactic  discussion.  But  as  if 
this  were  expecting  too  much  of  him,  he  immediately 
hedges,  as  it  were,  by  adding  that  "  to  perceive  the  truth  of 
these  words  there  is  no  more  required  than  that  I  should 
first  unfold  the  nature  of  the  hfe  hid  in  God."  Argument 
by  exposition,  therefore,  is  all  we  may  expect.  But  we  do 
not  get  even  this.  His  exposition  is  only  a  series  of  sen- 
timental reflections.  Laying  accent  upon  the  religious 
significance  of  his  work,  and  recalling  that  his  sermon  is 
only  a  part  of  worship,  he  adds,  "Let  us  then  in  our  wor- 
ship of  to-day  consider  the  hfe  hid  in  God  in  its  beginning, 
in  its  progress,  and  in  its  end."  And  this  is  the  sermon. 
This  relating  of  the  sermon  to  the  worship  is  common  with 
him,  a  valuable  reminder  for  any  preacher.  His  preach- 
ing bears  the  mark  of  a  genuine  evangehcal  spirit,  of  great 
cathoHcity  and  benevolence,  of  skilful  ethical  analysis,  of 
a  persuasive,  practical  quahty,  in  which  there  is  much 
direct  appeal,  of  great  emotional  exuberance,  of  an  easy 
natural  method  of  handhng  the  material  of  the  sermon, 
in  which  the  textual  division  is  common,  and  of  an  affluent 
and  often  semipoetic  style. 

3.  Juhus  Miiller,  his  colleague  at  Halle,  was  not 
comparable  with  Tholuck  as  a  preacher,  but  he  was  a 
much  profounder  theologian.  His  father  was  a  clergyman. 
His  early  advantages  for  education  were  much  more  fa- 
vorable than  those  of  Tholuck,  and  they  were  all  directly 
tributary  to  his  training  as  a  rehgious  teacher.  He  was  in 
training  for  the  practice  of  law,  but  was  persuaded  by 
Tholuck  to  enter  upon  the  study  of  theology.     His  attention 


THE   GERMAN   PULPIT  i6l 

was  especially  directed   to  the  ethical  aspects  of   Chris- 
tianity, a  remote  outcome  of  which  may  perhaps  be  found 
in  his  "Doctrine  of  Sin,"  a  monumental  work,  disclosing 
much  learning  and  power  of  investigation  with  some  defects 
of  method.     One  of  the  results  of  his  legal  studies  may 
perhaps  be  seen  in  a  certain  tendency  to  make  out  his  case 
by  the  apphcation  of  a  sort  of  theological  dialectic,  which 
discloses  itself  in  a  measure  in  his  preaching,  as  well  as 
in  his  theological  writings.     In  his  advocacy  of  the  position 
that  Christian  faith  has  an  independent  sphere  of  its  o-v^ti 
and  is  not  dependent  upon  philosophic  defences,  he  dis- 
closes the  influence  of  Schleiermacher,  or  perhaps  more 
specifically  of  Neander.     This  influence  may  be  seen  also 
in  his  antagonism  to  the  Hegehan  school.     He  preached 
in  connection  with  his  teaching  at  the  university,  and  pub- 
lished several  volumes  of  sermons.     His  discourses  are 
more  sohd,  more  argumentative  than  those  of  Tholuck 
and    the   style   has   less   momentum    and   more    weight. 
He  was  preeminently  a  Bibhcal  preacher,  although  his 
discourses  are  topical  rather  than  textual  in  form.     He 
supports  his  subject  by  Biblical  arguments,  and  illustrates 
copiously  from  Bibhcal  facts  and  teachings.     But  he  lays 
supreme  emphasis  upon  the  free  and  full  appropriation  by 
the  preacher  in  the  experiences  of  his  own  heart  of  the 
truth  of  the  Scriptures.     His  discourses,  therefore,  disclose 
the  experimental  quahty  that  eminently  characterizes  this 
whole  school.     They  bear  the  mark  of  most  serious  medi- 
tation.    They  are  pious  reflections  upon  the  great  reahties 
of  reUgious  experience.     They  sometimes  open  with  prayer, 
more  frequently  they  close  with  prayer,  and  they  suggest 
how  easily  and  naturally  a  pious  meditation  upon  some 
sacred    theme   of   rehgious   experience   may    pass    from 
converse  with  men    to    converse    and    communion    with 
God.     Without  oratorical  power  and  without  any  strik- 
ing rhetorical  excellencies,  Miiller's  preaching  is  still  im- 
pressive   in  its   intellectual    dignity,   its    moral    gra\dty, 


l62  THE    MODERN   PULPIT 

its    Biblical     insight     and    fertility,     and    its    religious 
devoutness. 

4.  Ullman,  who  for  several  years  was  associated  with 
Tholuck  at  Halle,  and  later  with  Rothe  at  Heidelberg,  was 
one  of  the  most  accomphshed  preachers  of  this  school. 
He  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  theological  "Studien 
und  Kritiken,"  the  organ  of  the  mediating  school,  author 
of  "The  Sinlessness  of  Jesus,"  an  epoch-making  book, 
and  of  "Reformers  before  the  Reformation,"  both  well 
known  to  EngHsh  readers.  His  kinship  with  Schleier- 
macher  and  with  Neander  is  seen  in  the  significance  for 
apologetics  which  he  attaches  to  the  doctrine  of  the  person 
of  Christ,  and  especially  to  his  sinless  perfection,  and  in  his 
conception  of  Christianity  as  something  more  than  doctrine 
as  the  rationahsts  and  confessionalists  conceived  it,  and 
as  something  more  than  morality  as  the  Kantians  con- 
ceived it.  With  him  Christianity  is  hving  fellowship  with 
God  through  Christ,  who  is  a  new  life  power  that  works 
redemptively  within  the  soul.  He  was  a  man  of  uncommon 
artistic  equipment,  a  friend  and  companion  of  artists  and 
poets,  and  his  artistic  gifts  he  revealed  in  the  elegance  of 
his  literary  style.  During  the  latter  period  of  his  Hfe  he 
held  an  important  position  as  a  church  official,  wherein,  as 
well  as  in  his  university  professorship,  he  was  accustomed 
to  exercise  his  preaching  gifts. 

5.  By  far  the  ablest  thinker  in  the  mediating  school, 
and  one  of  its  most  interesting  preachers,  was  Richard 
Rothe.  He  was  a  typical  German  investigator,  intro- 
verted, fond  of  solitude,  eager  for  knowledge,  an  inde- 
pendent theologian,  who,  in  his  devotion  to  religious  and 
theological  freedom,  allied  himself  with  the  liberals  of  the 
Protestant  Union,  although  in  his  pronounced  supematu- 
rahsm  in  fuller  sympathy  with  the  mediating  school  of 
evangelicals ;  a  man  full  of  noble  religious  feeling  and  of  a 
vivid  imagination  that  was  thoroughly  cultivated  by  the 
study  of  the  German  poets,  of  whom  "  Novalis  "  was  a  favor- 


THE   GERMAN    PULPIT  163 

ite ;  sensitively  responsive  to  the  mysteries  of  the  universe, 
mystical  in  the  type  of  his  rehgious  experience,  and  a  strong 
antagonist  of  the  rationahstic  preaching  of  his  day.  It 
was  doubtless  through  the  imaginative  element  in  his 
nature  that  the  supernaturaUsm  of  Christianity  took  so 
strong  a  hold  of  him.  But  his  scientific  training  was  as 
complete  as  the  rehgious  and  aesthetic.  He  was  a  most 
patient  and  laborious  student,  a  man  of  profound  insight 
and  of  wide-ranging  acquisitions,  thoroughly  equipped 
in  the  knowledge  of  all  branches  of  theology,  German  and 
other,  with  vast  speculative  ability  that  aUied  him  with  the 
rehgious  theosophists,  a  follower  of  Neander  rather  than 
of  Schleiermacher,  and  was  attracted  by  the  writings  of 
Thomas  Ersldne  the  Scotchman,  whose  rehgious  devout- 
ness,  theological  independence,  and  enterprise  and  intel- 
lectual suggestiveness  found  in  him  a  point  of  ready 
attachment.  Like  all  the  men  of  his  school,  he  was 
thoroughly  interested  in  Biblical  and  in  practical  theology, 
and  he  developed  Christianity  especially  on  its  ethical 
side.  His  masterful  work  on  Theological  Ethics  is  a 
monument  to  his  learning  and  industr}^,  disclosing  the  vast 
erudition  and  the  intehectual  grasp  of  the  man.  His  httle 
brochure,  "  Zur  Dogmatik,"  is  a  most  interesting  and 
attractive  contribution  to  vital  questions  that  were  in 
vigorous  agitation  a  generation  ago,  and  has  proved  to  be 
a  friendly  guide  to  many  a  man  groping  for  standing 
ground  in  supernatural  Christianity.  Like  all  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  school  of  Schleiermacher,  he  was  strongly 
interested  in  all  church  questions.  He  wrote  a  most  valu- 
able history  of  Christian  preaching,  to  which  reference 
has  constantly  been  made  by  the  writer  of  this  book  and  to 
which  he  is  greatly  indebted,  and  he  was  himself  an  inter- 
esting and  impressive  preacher.  Like  most  German 
preachers,  he  makes  prominent  the  element  of  persuasion 
in  the  work  of  edification,  and  his  discourses,  which  are 
in  general  short,  do  not  abound  in  profound  or  striking 


1 64  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

thought.  But  in  their  tone  they  are  eminently  Christian, 
aiming  supremely  at  the  exaltation  of  Christ  and  endeavor- 
ing to  make  him  known  and  felt  as  a  Hving,  present  reahty 
in  hfe.  Clearness  of  thought,  exceptional  care  in  getting 
the  main  topics  definitely  and  in  clear  outline  before  the 
hearer,  simphcity  of  diction,  and  affectionateness  of  spirit 
are  prominent  characteristics.  He  was  in  the  main  a 
topical  preacher,  but  freely  used  Bibhcal  topics  in  his 
development. 

It  is  this  mediating  school  that  touches  most  closely  the 
modem  evangehcal  church.  The  names  of  its  represent- 
ative men  have  become  famihar  as  household  words,  and 
we  have  only  to  recall  the  influence  they  have  exerted 
during  the  last  generation  in  order  to  assure  ourselves 
of  their  significance  for  us.  They  were  the  advocates  of  a 
theological  and  ecclesiastical  freedom  that  was  reverent 
and  spiritual  in  tone.  They  respected  all  that  demanded 
candid  recognition  in  the  rationalism  of  their  day,  all  that 
should  be  conserved  in  its  traditional  theology,  and  all  that 
was  conducive  to  piety  and  to  the  rights  of  Christian 
experience.  But  they  wrought  from  the  basis  of  Biblical 
evangehcahsm  and  sought  to  meet  at  once  the  claims  of 
science  and  of  religion. 

n. 

Whatever  the  diversities  of  German  preaching,  it  should 
already  have  been  made  apparent  that  there  are  points 
of  Hkeness  which  are  largely  common  to  all  schools. 
Doubtless  points  of  differentiation  are  less  apparent  to  the 
foreigner  than  to  the  native  German.  But  even  the  out- 
lander  readily  detects  some  of  the  notes  that  are  common 
to  all  types  of  it.  What,  then,  are  some  of  its  prominent 
characteristics?  We  shall  find  many  of  them  in  hne  with 
those  characteristics  of  modern  preaching  which  we  have 
already  discussed.     For  not  only  German  temperament  but 


THE   GERMAN  PULPIT  165 

modem  German  culture  have  conditioned  these  char- 
acteristics. Many  of  them  have  already  emerged  to  view 
in  our  discussion  of  the  different  schools  of  German 
preaching.  But  at  the  risk  of  seeming  repetition  let  us 
attempt  a  summar>\  That  which  will  probably  be  recog- 
nized as  most  distinctive  of  German  preaching  may  be 
called  its  prevaihngly  subjective  quahty.  "  Innigkeit,"  in- 
wardness, is  the  comprehensive  term,  involving  a  great 
variety  of  quahties,  that  designates  its  fundamental  pecu- 
harity.  The  German  mind  is  introverted,  reflective, 
meditative.  It  has  its  owm  "innenwelt,  "  its  own  inner 
world  of  ideas  and  feehngs  and  sentiments  to  which  it 
likes  to  turn  and  in  which  it  Hkes  to  dwell.  Mystical 
rever}'  and  philosophic  speculation  are  characteristic 
German  products,  and  the  result  manifests  itself  in  a  variety 
of  ways  in  German  preaching.  It  lacks  in  sahent,  ob- 
jective, aggressive  qualities.  It  may  be  called  philosophi- 
cal as  dealing  with  the  inner  reaHties  of  things,  rather 
than  with  their  external  and  formal  aspects  and  relations. 
It  reflects,  it  holds  the  subject  in  discussion  in  close  relation 
to  the  experiences  of  the  inner  hfe.  It  is  therefore  to  a 
large  extent  experimental.  It  reflects  what  is  going  on  in 
the  soul  of  the  preacher,  or  in  the  souls  of  his  hearers,  or 
what  the  preacher  wishes  to  know  as  going  on  there^  and 
that  ought  to  be  going  on  there.  Enghsh  preaching  in  so 
far  as  it  is  dogmatic  and  ecclesiastical  will  subsen^e  some 
external  churchly  interest,  or  the  interest  of  truth^  as 
an  objective  reaUty  or  the  cause  of  objective  revelation. 
In  so  far  as  it  is  humanistic  it  will  subserve  some  broader 
human  interest,  and  it  becomes  objectively  practical  m  its 
efforts  to  bring  to  pass  determinate  results  in  the  moral 
world.  German  preaching,  even  of  the  dogmatic  and 
confessional  type,  while  it  would  subserv^e  the  interests  of 
the  cause  of  truth,  is  much  more  interested  in  relating  the 
truth  to  the  content  of  the  experiences  of  the  inner  Hfe. 
As  experimental  rehgion  has  won  ascendency,  as  the  value 


l66  THE   MODERN    PULPIT 

of  truth  for  the  inner  world  and  its  vital  relation  *to  the 
content  of  rchgious  experience  has  received  new  emphasis, 
the  experimental  element  in  preaching,  even  within  the  con- 
fessional school,  has  thus  been  greatly  strengthened.  It  is 
by  reason  of  this  subjective  and  experimental  quality  that 
German  preaching  is  less  obtrusively  practical,  and  enters 
less  widely  into  the  realm  of  the  moral  as  distinguished 
from  the  rehgious  life  than  Enghsh  preaching.  American 
preaching  too  is  much  more  ethically  cogent  and  rhe- 
torically incisive.  It  deals  more  largely  with  concrete 
reahties,  more  largely  with  the  practical  bearings  of  the 
truth,  and  aims  more  determinately  at  tangible  results. 
French  preaching  is  rhetorically  brilhant.  It  has  a 
descriptive,  an  externally  obtrusive,  often  a  concretely 
sensuous,  quahty  that  makes  it  striking  and  impres- 
sive. In  contrast,  German  preaching  broods  upon  the 
truth,  relates  it  to  the  inner  world  of  feehng  and  sen- 
timent, and  does  not  illustrate  or  enforce  it  so  largely  by 
the  use  of  the  external  images  of  thought.  If  it  is  de- 
scriptive, it  is  to  a  large  extent  psychologically  descriptive, 
as  setting  forth  the  reahties  of  the  inner  hfe.  It  is  there- 
fore intuitional  rather  than  prevaihngly  dialectical  in  its 
processes  and  methods.  Not  that  the  German  mind  is 
at  all  lacking  in  dialectical  discursiveness,  as  it  is  not  in 
capacity  for  imaginative  representation,  or  in  ability  to 
grasp  the  objective  and  practical  relations  of  the  truth. 
It  is  simply  that  the  preacher's  mental  movements  are 
more  largly  dominated  by  the  experiences  of  his  inner  Ufe. 
Hence,  while  the  mental  movement  is  subjective,  it  hes 
within  the  realm  of  reality.  It  does  not  enter  the  realm  of 
the  abstract  or  of  the  abstruse  in  thought.  German 
preaching  not  only  rests  upon  an  experimental  basis,  a 
basis  of  inner  reahty,  but  rehgious  experience  itself  rests 
upon  a  historic  basis.  Whatever  stress  may  be  laid  upon 
the  subjective  and  experimental  factor,  Hke  all  best  modem 
preaching,  it  always  and  in   all  schools  relates  its  sub- 


THE    GERMAN   PULPIT  1 67 

jective  and  experimental  religious  or  reflective  impulse 
to  historic  revelation.     Hence  German  preaching  always 
has  a  Biblical  quality.     No  German  preacher  of  our  day, 
even  the  most  advanced  hberal,  would  think  of  abandoning 
a  BibKcal  foundation.     Whatever  his  conception  of  revela- 
tion or  of  the  Bible,  and  of  course  men's  conceptions  differ 
very  widely,  he  would  not  ignore  historic  rehgion.     The 
Scriptures  have  fully  recovered  their  place  in  the  German 
pulpit,  and  one  of  the  best  results    of    the  remorseless 
criticism  to  which  they  have  been  subjected  is  the  fact 
that  they  are  treated  with  more  respect  than  ever  before. 
Moreover,  the  textual  as  distinguished  from  the  topical 
method  is  on  the  whole  much  more  common  than  in 
English,  American,  or  French  preaching.     It  is  also  true 
that    German    preaching    has    a    distinct    Christological 
centre.     German  theology,  in  returning  to  the  inner  realm 
of  rehgious  experience,  has  led  the  pulpit  back  to  a  more 
distinctively    Christian    circle    of   ideas.     Those    concep- 
tions of  a  hving  relation  with  the  historic  Christ,  and  those 
experiences  of  personal  fellowship  with  him,  with  which 
the  rehgion  and  theolog}^  of  our  day  so  largely  deal,  find 
abundant  recognition  in  the  preaching  of  Germany.  _  The 
Christian  conceptions  of  redemption  and  of  reconcihation 
are  made   prominent.     Preachers,  of  course,  differ  very 
widely  in  their  conceptions  of  Christianity  as  the  rehgion 
of  redemption.     Liberahsm  differs  widely  from_  confes- 
sionahsm  and  from  concihation  ui  minimizing  or  in  ehmi- 
nating  the   supernatural  of   Christianity.      But  in  some 
form  Christianity  is  recognized  as  the  rehgion  of  redemp- 
tion, and    whatever  form  the  conception  may  take,_  it  is 
Christianity  as  a  historical  rehgion,  bringing  new  life  to 
men,  and  made  real  and  vital  in  subjective  experience, 
that  is  brought  to  men's  attention. 

In  this  recognition  of  the  experimental  and  historic 
the  German  pulpit  is  of  course  not  ahogether  peculiar,  but 
in  this  matter  it  has  led  the  way.     The  point  in  hand, 


l68  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

however,  just  here,  is  that  it  is  the  prevaihng  homiletic 
habit  of  the  German  preacher  to  use  historic  rehgion 
largely  as  a  basis  for  interpreting  rehgious  experience,  to 
carry  objective  revelation  over  into  the  realm  of  the  sub- 
jective life,  to  strike  into  the  innermost  heart  of  rehgion, 
and  to  brood  upon  the  subject  to  be  presented  in  a  medita- 
tive and  sentimental  and  emotionally  pious  manner.  Of 
course  there  are  preachers  who  hold  that  the  truth  of 
revelation  has  an  objective  and  binding  authority  of  its 
own,  and  must  be  presented  as  from  a  basis  of  objective 
authority.  But  no  German  preacher  of  any  school  would 
claim  that  it  may  ever  be  presented  out  of  relation  to  the 
realities  of  religious  experience. 

It  is  this  subjective  quahty  in  German  preaching  that 
may  account  for  a  certain  lack  of  sharp,  clear  outhne  in 
the  thought  of  the  sermon  and  of  closeness  of  relation  in  the 
thought.  By  this  it  is  not  meant  that  the  sermon  is  defi- 
cient in  structural  form.  Far  from  it.  The  German 
preacher  is  exceptionally  careful  in  the  ordering  of  his 
thought.  The  outhne  features  of  his  discourse  are  ex- 
ceptionally clear  and  definite.  It  is  not,  however,  the 
definiteness  of  a  mechanical  construction,  but  the  definite- 
ness  of  an  organic  development.  It  is  his  habit  carefully 
to  incubate  his  subject,  to  arrange  its  elements  in  order, 
and  to  push  it  from  an  inner  centre  outward,  so  that  the 
whole  mass  of  well- related  material  is  broken  up  under 
the  pressure,  and  the  well-arranged  groups  of  thought  are 
clearly  differentiated.  There  is  sometimes  a  suggestion 
of  excess  of  care  in  formal  arrangement.  The  sermon 
sometimes  lacks  grace  and  facihty  and  freedom  of  move- 
ment. Sometimes  it  almost  suggests  the  preacher's  dis- 
trust of  the  abihty  of  his  hearers  to  follow  him  successfully 
without  obtruding  all  the  points  of  the  organism.  And 
yet,  in  general,  the  German  preacheris  an  excellent  model  in 
structural  order.  The  lack  of  clearness  or  of  definiteness  is 
not  in  the  centres  or  groups  of  thought,  but  in  the  individual 


THE   GERMAN   PULPIT  169 

thoughts  of  the  discussion.  The  material  of  thought, 
dwelt  upon  in  a  reflective  manner,  stands  not  infrequently 
in  a  certain  remoteness  of  relation.  It  sometimes  leaves 
the  impression  of  vagueness.  One  wonders  why  the 
preacher  should  have  said  just  what  he  has  said,  and  fails 
to  see  any  closeness  of  relation  between  thoughts  in  close 
juxtaposition.  The  cause  of  this  is  a  lack  of  close,  vig- 
orous thinking.  It  is  the  free  and  easy  mediative  style 
of  homiletic  thought.  One  recognizes  this  not  infrequently 
in  Tholuck's  preaching.  Thought  is  loosely  related  and 
remotely  suggested.  It  lacks  closeness  of  logical  con- 
tinuity. The  general  current  of  thought  flows  on  in  a  free 
and  easy  manner  and  with  a  certain  diffuseness  of  style, 
thoughts  are  pitched  into  relation  from  a  considerable  dis- 
tance, and  the  result  is  a  certain  lack  of  sahency  in  the 
development  of  the  subordinate  thought  of  the  sermon  as 
distinguished  from  its  plan.  One  sees  something  of  this 
even  in  Schleiermacher's  preaching,  and  of  this  lack  of 
sahency  in  the  thought  of  his  sermons  he  himself  com- 
plained in  the  early  part  of  his  ministry.  It  is  a  result  of 
the  reflective,  sometimes  of  the  mystical,  habit  of  mind. 

All  this  involves  a  certain  suggestive  quahty  in  German 
preaching.  It  is  the  suggestive  as  distinguished  from 
the  elaborately  discussional  quahty  that  characterizes  it. 
One  never  hears  in  the  German  pulpit  so  thorough  a  dis- 
cussion in  closely  and  logically  related  thought  of  impor- 
tant rehgious  or  theological  subjects  as  one  not  infrequently 
hears,  or  in  time  past  has  been  accustomed  to  hear,  in  the 
Enghsh  or  American  pulpit.  To  suggest  what  passes 
in  the  mind  somewhat  freely,  easily,  and  often  remotely, 
rather  than  to  discuss  a  subject  closely  and  elaborately, 
is  the  German  homiletic  habit.  The  preacher  dwells  upon 
the  subject  emotionally,  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word  sen- 
timentally, rather  than  intellectually.  And  his  feeling 
and  sentiment  suggest  more  than  is  definitely  said. 

This  brings  us  to  one  of  the  most  prominent  character- 


I70 


THE   MODERN   PULPIT 


istics  of  German  preaching,  its  prevailingly  emotional 
and  sentimental  quality,  to  which  attention  has  already 
been  directed.  This  is  in  line  not  only  with  the  German's 
native  gifts  and  tendencies  and  with  his  culture,  but  with 
his  conception  of  preaching  as  an  utterance  in  speech 
of  the  innermost  experiences  of  the  heart,  as  testimony, 
not  as  to  the  objective  validity  of  the  truth,  but  as  to  its 
reality  in  the  inner  life  of  rehgious  feehng.  The  subject  is 
not  only  thought  out  but  felt  out.  It  seems  to  be  much 
easier  for  the  German  than  for  the  Englishman  or  the 
American,  particularly  the  EngUsh  or  American  preacher, 
to  express  his  religious  feehngs.  There  are  indeed  extra 
German  communions  that  have  from  the  first  fostered  a 
religion  of  the  heart,  whose  preaching  also  has  been  and  is 
characterized  by  great  religious  fervor.  But  in  general 
EngUsh  and  American  preaching  discloses  the  lack  of 
trained  and  cultivated  religious  feehng,  affection,  and  sen- 
timent. The  German  is  accustomed  to  express  his  feelings 
in  domestic  and  social  Hfe,  and  he  does  it  the  more  easily 
in  his  rehgious  life.  Perhaps  he  has  a  wealthier  inner  life 
to  express.  But  whatever  the  explanation  of  it,  this  is 
a  striking  characteristic  of  German  preaching. 

It  is  true  that  the  German  hves  much  in  the  senses. 
But  he  still  has  his  inner  world  to  which  he  retreats.  The 
retreat  of  rehgion  to  its  mystical  home  in  the  reahn  of  inner 
experience  has  greatly  intensified  this  native  tendency  of 
the  German  to  give  utterance  to  the  feehngs  of  the  heart. 
The  sentiments  and  affections  in  general  have  larger  place 
and  freer  play  in  German  than  in  Enghsh  and  American 
Hfe.  Enghsh  and  American  hfe  as  well  as  preaching 
might  be  enriched  in  the  domain  of  affection  and  sentiment. 
And  a  study  of  German  preaching  might  be  tributary  to  its 
enrichment  on  this  side. 

The  artistic  sense  in  the  German  preacher  is  not  highly 
developed.  He  is  not  a  natural  rhetorician  nor  orator. 
At  least  he  is  not  thoroughly  trained  as  such.     His  rhetoric 


THE  GERMAN  PULPIT  171 

is  often  effusive  and  extravagant,  lacking  in  good  artistic 
taste,  and  his  oratory  is  sometimes  crude  and  bombastic. 
But  it  must  be  granted  that  within  the  last  few  decades  there 
has  been  a  decided  improvement  in  the  artistic  quahty 
of  German  preaching.  Either  the  demand  upon  the  pulpit 
speaker  is  more  exacting,  or  the  preacher's  demand  upon 
himself  is  more  exacting.  Even  the  university  lecturer 
no  longer  treats  his  Uterary  style  with  contempt.  He  is 
forced  or  is  incUned  to  better  the  artistic  quahty  of  his 
lecture. 

The  chief  defect  of  German  preaching  is,  as  we  have 
already  been  led  to  see,  its  lack  of  intellectual  fibre.  It 
seems  to  discredit  the  intellect,  if  not  as  the  organ  of  rehgious 
knowledge,  although  this  is  measurably  true,  at  all  events 
as  the  instrument  of  rehgious  edification.  The  writer  once 
heard  a  German  minister  say  that  "in  hstening  to  Ameri- 
can preachers  one  would  imagine  that  they  regard  the  intel- 
lect as  the  only  organ  of  rehgion."  The  German  preacher 
is  entirely  guiltless  of  that  mistake.  One  would  imagine 
that  the  feehngs  and  sentiments  furnish  the  only  sphere 
with  which  the  religion  of  the  average  German  preacher 
cares  to  deal.  It  is  not  that  the  German  preacher  regards  his 
congregation  as  too  immature  and  unintelhgent  for  such  dis- 
cussion, for  he  in  fact  preaches  to  a  class  of  people  who  are 
exceptionally  well  instructed  in  the  main  facts  and  truths 
of  Christianity.  It  is  rather  that  he  expects  his  congrega- 
tion to  look  elsewhere  for  the  sources  of  intellectual  illumi- 
nation. Consequently  indoctrination  is  not  his  aim, 
but  rather  a  form  of  rehgious  edification  in  which  the  per- 
suasive dominates  the  didactic  element.  His  aim  is  to 
nurture  or  to  stimulate  rehgious  feeling  and  to  promote 
Christian  piety,  not  to  inform  the  understanding  with 
theological  knowledge.  And  this  is  measurably  true  in 
the  hberal  as  in  other  schools  of  German  preachers.  The 
emotional  and  sentimental  and  unintellectual  element 
in   German  preaching,  which  to  an  American  audience 


172  THE    MODERN   PULPIT 

would  be  regarded  as  involving  a  species  of  patronage 
and  of  mental  condescension  on  the  part  of  the  preacher, 
is  simply  normal  in  the  German  pulpit.  Of  course  there 
are  individual  exceptions,  but  this  lack  of  intellectual  fibre 
is  a  common  defect  in  German  preaching. 

What  we  call  the  pastoral  type  of  preaching  is  in  excess 
of  the  evangelistic  type,  as  the  sentimental  is  in  excess  of 
the  didactic.  There  are  indeed  religious  communions, 
that  have  broken  with  the  old  established  churches  of 
Germany,  in  which  the  evangelistic  type  of  preaching  is 
prevalent.  Such  preaching  is  not  only  in  hne  with  their 
theories  but  with  their  necessities.  But  German  preaching 
as  represented  by  the  older  communions  lacks  the  evan- 
gelistic note  and  is  deficient  in  evangelistic  cogency  and 
productiveness.  It  may  be  exuberant  in  pietistic  utterance, 
but,  underestimating  the  demand  for  intellectual  convince- 
ment,  and  aiming  supremely  at  the  persuasive  type  of 
pastoral  edification,  it  fails  in  evangcUstic  persuasion. 
It  often  assumes  too  much  for  the  religious  development 
of  the  congregation.  It  is  a  baptized  community  that  has 
been  well  instructed  from  the  first  in  the  elements  of 
religious  knowledge  and  need  not  be  regrounded  by  the 
preacher.  He  has  only  to  further  a  life  presumably 
already  well  grounded  and  fairly  well  nurtured. 

In  line  with  what  has  been  already  said,  it  is  natural 
that  German  preaching  should  be  relatively  deficient  in 
ethical  virility.  It  is  defective  in  ethical  aim.  Dealing 
largely  with  the  nurture  of  the  feelings,  affections,  and  senti- 
ments, it  does  not  adequately  grapple  with  the  will.  Its 
ethical  field  is  greatly  restricted.  Its  range  of  ethical 
themes  is  limited.  As  lacking  in  ethical  aim  and  in  ethical 
range  it  lacks  in  rhetorical  impressiveness  and  in  general 
adaptation  to  the  practical  interests  of  life.  If  on  the  one 
hand  it  has  not  adequately  entered  the  realm  of  theologic 
thought,  as  has  the  British  and  American  pulpit,  notwith- 
standing the  rich  stores  of  learning  at  its  command,  on  the 


THE  GERMAN  PULPIT  173 

other  hand  it  has  failed  to  enter  adequately  into  the  moral 
life  of  the  people.  For  this  and  other  reasons  it  has  failed 
to  make  the  impression  it  mig.it  have  made  upon  the  mod- 
em world.  The  preaching  of  Great  Britain,  America,  and 
France  has  furnished  a  better  ethical  ideal,  and  has  made 
a  stronger  impression  upon  the  people.  Indeed,  the  preach- 
ing of  Germany  has,  as  we  have  already  seen,  often  received 
new  impulse  from  that  of  other  nationahties,  and  in  our 
ovm  day  there  are  in  Germany  thoughtful  and  aggressive 
men  who  express  dissatisfaction  with  the  condition  of  the 
German  pulpit  and  who  exalt  the  intellectual  incisiveness 
and  ethical  forcefulness  of  American  preaching  as  fur- 
nishing a  model  which  the  preachers  of  their  own  country 
may  well  adopt.  And  yet  the  German  preaching  of  our 
day  is  on  the  whole  of  a  higher  order  than  that  of  the 
seventeenth  or  of  the  eighteenth  century.  It  is  not  so 
strong  intellectually  perhaps  as  the  preaching  of  the  Illu- 
mination, or  as  that  of  dogmatic  confessionaUsm.  It  is 
on  the  whole  not  so  evangelical  nor  so  evangehstic  nor 
so  popular  as  that  of  the  Reformation.  But  as  expressing 
and  interpreting  the  rehgious  Ufe  of  our  age,  it  is  doubtless 
doing  its  work  increasingly  well,  and  especially  in  its 
efforts  to  conserve  the  interests  of  culture  and  of  piety. 


174  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 


n 

THE    ANGLICAN    PULPIT 

In  passing  from  the  German  to  the  Anghcan  pulpit 
we  find  ourselves  in  a  different  atmosphere.  It  may  be 
roughly  characterized  as  the  atmosphere  of  institutional 
religion.  There  is  a  change  from  what  is  characteristi- 
cally subjective,  experimental,  sentimental,  to  what  is  in 
general  more  distinctively  objective,  reahstic,  churchly. 
We  recognize  the  dominance  of  organized  religion.  We 
discern  the  presence  of  the  practical,  virile,  organizing,  and 
political  AngHcan  mind.  In  its  best  estate,  more  vigorous 
intellectually  than  German  preaching,  more  widely  respon- 
sive ethically  to  the  influence  of  modern  life,  more  aggres- 
sive mentally  and  morally  in  its  wide  invasions  of  the 
various  spheres  of  human  experience,  one  also  detects 
almost  everywhere  in  Anglican  preaching  the  ecclesiastical 
note. 

I. 

Before  turning  our  attention  more  specifically  to  different 
schools  and  to  different  individual  preachers  of  the  An- 
glican church,  we  will  venture  upon  a  general  estimate 
of  its  preaching.  It  is  indeed  a  venture  to  subject  to 
critical  analysis  what  must  involve  so  large  a  generali- 
zation. Different  schools  of  preachers  and  indeed  differ- 
ent representatives  of  the  same  school  cannot,  of  course, 
be  brought  to  the  same  dead  level.  The  three  schools, 
high,  low,  and  broad,  of  the  Anglican  communion  have 
been  said  to  have  each  a  normal,  an  exaggerated,  and  a 


THE  ANGLICAN   PULPIT  175 

Stagnant  type.  What  might  be  true  of  the  normal  type 
of  any  school  of  Anglican  preachers  would  certainly  not 
be  equally  true  of  the  exaggerated  or  stagnant  type.  The 
elect  preacher  who  represents  the  craft  at  its  best  can 
never  be  classified  with  the  average  preacher.  The 
metropohtan  must  be  differentiated  from  the  rural  preacher 
and  the  occasional  from  the  pastoral  preacher.  Extensive 
discriminations  must  be  assumed  in  this  large  process  of 
generahzation  and  must  limit  it.  But  upon  a  wide  survey 
we  are  able  to  discover  qualities  that  belong  to  Anglican 
preaching  as  a  whole,  and  if  they  include  defects  that 
have  lessened  its  power,  the  task  of  pointing  them  out 
is  less  difficult  than  it  is  agreeable.  In  the  light  of  any 
just  estimate  of  it,  it  should  become  evident  that  the  great 
preachers  of  the  church,  hke  Frederick  W.  Robertson,^ 
have  not  been  supremely  indebted  to  its  homiletic  cul- 
ture. 

i.  It  will  doubtless  not  be  claimed  for  the  Anglican 
communion  that  it  has  always  had,  or  that  it  even  now 
has,  an  altogether  adequate  apprehension  of  the  preacher's 
task  or  an  adequate  estimate  of  its  importance.  Preaching 
has  not  been  regarded  as  the  supreme  interest.  The 
pulpit  has  not  been  the  centre  of  power.  The  Englishman 
is  certainly  not  lacking  in  those  gifts  that  fit  one  for  effec- 
tive pubhc  speech.  England  has,  in  fact,  been  noted  for 
its  orators.  The  Anghcan  church  has  been  the  nome  of 
great  preachers.  The  age  of  Tillotson,  Taylor,  Barrow, 
and  South  bears  witness,  and  scarcely  less  the  age  of 
Newman,  Robertson,  Magee,  and  Liddon.  But  somehow 
the  English  lawyer,  pohtician,  and  statesman  have  a  better 
knowledge  of  the  art  of  pubhc  speech  and  are  better  trained 
in  it  than  the  preacher  of  the  established  church.  The 
typical  Anglican  preacher  discloses  an  inadequate  con- 
ception of  homiletic  principles,  and  lacks  trained  rhetorical 
and   oratorical   gifts.     Pressure   of   work   in   other  lines 

*  See  "  Representative  Modern  Preachers,"  Ch.  II. 


176  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

of  clerical  service  cannot  altogether  account  for  this,  nor 
is  it  due  to  lack  of  generous  and  intelligent  interest  in  the 
higher  welfare  of  men,  or  of  those  didactic  and  ethical 
impulses  which  are  essential  to  the  work  of  the  ministry. 
More  and  better  work  for  men  has  never  been  done  by 
the  church  than  is  done  to-day.      Nor  is  it  that  there 
is  always  a  better  market  for  the  wares  of  the  parish 
priest   than   for  those   of   the   parish   preacher.      There 
is  an  ample  field  here  for  persuasive  public  speech.     The 
preacher  is  not  at  discount.     Robertson,  Magee,  and  Lid- 
don  have  demonstrated  that  the  EngHsh  love  of  powerful  and 
skilful  oratory  still  Hngers.     But  one  may  venture  to  ques- 
tion whether  the  possibihties  of  the  pulpit  are  adequately 
estimated,  or  the  demands  upon  it  adequately  recognized. 
The  "speaking  man"  has,  as  Carlyle  would  say,  "missed 
the  point."     He  does  not  seem  to  cultivate  those  rhetorical 
or  oratorical  impulses  that  are  necessary  to  drive  the  truth 
home.    And  all  this  means  that  the  homiletical  is  sub- 
ordinate   to    the    hturgical    and    parochial   interest.     Of 
course  there  are  well-trained   preachers  in  the  AngHcan 
church.     In  London  and  other  large  centres  of  population 
there  are  not  more  effective  preachers  in  the  free  churches 
than  are  to  be  found  in  the  establishment.     They  have 
been  painstaking  students  of   the  art  of   preaching,  are 
thoroughly  acquainted  with  its  best  products,  and  disclose 
the  results  of  careful  personal   homiletic   training.     But 
such    preachers    are    exceptional.     They    are    occasional 
preachers,  with  not  only  unusual  pulpit  gifts,  but  with 
exceptional   opportunities  for  training  and   preparation. 
The  discourses  one  may  hear  from  such  preachers  during 
the  Lenten  season  and  on  other  church  days,  as  often 
from  preachers  of  the  Episcopal  church  in  the  United 
States,    are    of    a    very    impressive    character.     Special 
seasons  of  the  church  year  seem  to  evoke  the  preacher's 
best  powers,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  preaching,  on  similar 
occasions,  of  PhilHps  Brooks  in  this  country.     But  one 


THE  ANGLICAN  PULPIT  177 

may  be  an  effective  and  useful  preacher  without  being 
a  well-trained  pulpit  orator.  Of  such  trained  orators 
there  are  but  few  in  the  Anglican  church.  It  is  conceded 
that  in  time  past  the  larger  number  of  such  orators  have 
been  found  in  the  evangehcal  branch  of  the  church.  Some- 
how oratory,  pulpit  and  platform,  has  found  here  a  more 
congenial  sphere  than  in  other  schools.  And  yet  it  has 
had  but  Httle  appreciable  effect  upon  the  homiletical  and 
oratorical  training  of  the  clergy  of  the  church  in  general. 
At  the  universities  chief  importance  is  attached  to  clerical 
learning,  and  at  the  theological  colleges  to  traditional 
theology  and  to  liturgical  and  parochial  interests.  One 
seems  to  detect  defective  culture  of  a  sense  of  the  clerical 
calling  as  a  divine  calHng,  defective  culture  of  the  inner 
Ufe,  defective  recognition  of  the  testing  power  of  religious 
experience,  as  related  to  the  content  of  Christian  truth, 
a  relative  failure  to  interpret  the  truth  in  the  hght  and  to 
translate  it  in  terms  of  Christian  experience,  and  a  corre- 
sponding defective  recognition  of  the  advocate  function  of 
the  Christian  ministry,  the  function  namely  of  persuasion 
by  the  grace  and  power  of  truth  experimentally  tested 
and  by  a  type  of  trained  speech  that  is  fitted  to  reach  and 
influence  men.  Defective  knowledge  of  the  technique 
of  the  preacher's  work  is  evident.  It  is  not  that  the 
preacher  despises  rhetoric  and  oratory,  considered  as  a 
sort  of  artificial  appendage,  as  Robertson  did,  and  as  every 
generous,  manly  man  will  do.  It  is  that  he  does  not  train 
himself  to  speak  in  a  simple,  straight,  natural,  colloquial, 
and  so  effective  manner.  One  will  indeed  occasionally 
hear  in  the  church  something  of  the  judicial  and  delibera- 
tive type  of  speech  which  one  hears  at  the  English  bar, 
or  in  parhament,  or  on  the  hustings,  a  direct,  quiet,  con- 
versational, businesslike  sort  of  speech,  of  which  the  best 
English  secular  orators  are  masters.  But  one  wonders  that 
it  has  had  so  httle  influence  in  general  upon  the  Anglican 
pulpit.     If  the  Anglican  preacher  in  general  shares  with 


178  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

Robertson,  as  he  apparently  does,  and  indeed  may  well 
do,  his  contempt  for  the  external  appointments  of  the 
orator,  it  is  unfortunately  without  sharing  Robertson's 
genius  for  a  very  natural,  effective,  and  noble  species  of 
pulpit  speech.  One  finds  in  the  Anghcan  church  elabo- 
rate and  permanently  valuable  discussions  of  pastoral 
and  parochial  work  that  are  admirably  tributary  to  the 
clergyman's  administrative  tasks.  One  will  nowhere 
find  wiser,  more  scientific,  and  more  helpful  discussions 
of  those  great  problems  of  the  Christian  ministry,  in  con- 
nection with  which  the  modem  world  is  being  opened  up 
to  the  interest  and  responsibihty  of  the  church,  than  in 
that  branch  of  it  which  has  been  most  thoroughly  subject 
to  modern  influences.  But  administration  by  the  inven- 
tion or  development  of  elaborate  ecclesiastical  machin- 
eries, by  the  ecclesiastical  appropriation  of  economic  or 
sociological  sciences,  or  by  personal  initiative,  whether  it 
be  administration  in  the  comprehensive  or  in  the  narrow 
sense,  can  never  be  the  supreme  interest  of  the  Christian 
minister.  An  effective  church  leader  in  the  largest  and 
best  sense  must  be  an  effective  preacher.  He  must  have 
a  message  of  power  for  the  inspiration  of  men.  It  should 
be  a  modem  message  that  brings  the  old,  everlasting 
gospel  of  grace,  and  no  preacher  can  get  on  without  modem 
training  for  the  proclamation  of  it.  It  is  a  somewhat 
rare  thing  to  find  in  any  branch  of  the  church  a  thorough 
discussion  of  the  work  of  the  modem  preacher,  and 
the  prophecy  of  such  works  as  we  have  is  apparently  of 
"private  interpretation."  The  bishops  are  men  of  admin- 
istrative abihty,  although  in  general  not  men  of  enter- 
prising, aggressive  leadership  in  questions  of  reform. 
They  are  men  of  pastoral  wisdom  and  of  institutional 
prudence.  But  the  bishopric  does  not  seem  to  solicit 
or  to  develop  the  power  of  the  preacher.  The  clergy 
are  in  the  main  a  better  educated  body  of  men  than  the 
ministers  of  the  free  churches,  but  Anghcan  learning  is 


THE   ANGLICAN   PULPIT  179 

not  adequately  represented  in  Anglican  preaching.  The 
slavish  use  of  the  manuscript  has  been  common.  Preach- 
ers of  exceptional  rhetorical  or  oratorical  instincts,  Hke 
Liddon,  have  indeed  used  it  with  freedom,  but  few  preach- 
ers are  trained  or  encouraged  to  throw  themselves,  as 
Robertson  did,  upon  their  resources  and  to  develop  them- 
selves in  free  utterance.  They  are  counselled  to  write 
out  their  sermons  carefully,  perhaps  to  memorize  them, 
or  to  take  notes  of  them  into  the  pulpit,  which  is,  doubtless, 
with  limitations,  good  advice,  but  it  is  a  hard  test  for  the 
busy  preacher,  and  he  naturally  falls  back  for  support 
upon  the  pulpit  crutch.  The  ordinary  discourse  is  of  the 
essay  type,  without  unity,  proportion,  or  chmax,  and  is  ill 
adapted  to  rhetorical  or  oratorical  effects.  Instead  of  being 
an  address  to  be  spoken  to  an  audience  with  reference  to 
definite  vigorous  impression,  it  often  degenerates  into  a 
sort  of  semiliturgical  monologue  in  the  presence  of  a 
congregation  and  to  match  the  meagre  thought,  what 
can  be  more  lethargic  than  such  drawHng  monotony  or 
cantilating  recitative  of  elocution !  The  preacher  seems 
to  forget  that  the  congregation  becomes  an  audience  with 
definite,  ethical  claims  upon  him  the  moment  he  begins 
his  discourse.  But  the  congregation  is  not  educated  to 
demand  much  of  the  preacher,  and  he  governs  himself 
accordingly.  One  wonders  at  the  stiffness  and  conven- 
tionality of  the  preacher,  at  a  certain  professional  man- 
nerism, a  lack  of  colloquial  simplicity  and  straightfor- 
wardness, and  of  that  manifest  ethical  and  emotional 
concentration  that  is  conditioned  by  efi'ort  to  reach  the 
heart  and  conscience  as  well  as  intelligence  of  the  hearer. 
One  wonders  that  the  great  preachers  of  the  church  do 
not  seem  to  have  exerted  any  wide- reaching  homiletic 
influence,  and  questions  whether  the  influence  even  of 
Robertson  may  not  have  been  greater  in  the  free  churches 
than  in  the  establishment  and  possibly  even  greater  in 
the  United  States  than  in  England. 


l80  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

But  let  us  come  back  to  the  point  already  touched  upon. 
It  is  the  liturgical  that  still  dominates  the  homiletic 
interest,  especially  in  the  rituahstic  churches,  whose 
numbers  and  influence  are  increasing.  A  worship  that 
is  artistic  and  elaborate  is  the  centre  of  interest,  and  it 
exacts  time.  The  homily  is  often  crowded  into  the  hmits 
of  fifteen  minutes.  Robertson,  who,  it  is  said,  conducted 
the  service  with  singular  impressiveness,  an  impressive- 
ness  all  the  greater  that  he  never  forgot  the  hturgical 
significance  of  the  sermon  any  more  than  he  forgot  the 
educative  significance  of  the  Hturgy,  wanted  forty- five 
minutes  for  his  discourse,  and  what  can  the  ordinary 
preacher  do  in  fifteen  minutes?  That  the  sermon  should 
be  tributary  to  the  interests  of  a  worshipping  assembly 
is,  of  course,  highly  important.  But  if  the  nonconforming 
preacher  fails  to  recognize  this  in  a  defective  valuation  of 
preaching,  the  Anglican  preacher  fails  in  an  undervaluation 
of  it.  The  sermon  would  further  the  Hturgical  interest 
more  effectively  if  it  were  elevated  to  the  dignity  that 
properly  belongs  to  it,  and  if  its  impressive  value  were 
more  worthily  estimated.  But  the  church  exalts  the 
liturgical,  and  especially  the  sacramental,  somewhat  at 
the  cost  of  the  homiletical,  means  of  grace.  After  a 
thoroughly  vigorous,  effective  presentation  of  the  message 
of  God's  grace  to  the  ear,  by  which  the  hearer  is  brought 
into  the  immediate  and  unmediated  presence  of  God,  it 
is  not  uncommon  for  the  preacher  suddenly  to  turn,  as 
Canon  Liddon  often  did,  and  drag  him  back  into  the 
presence  of  the  sacraments  of  the  church,  as  the  supremely 
necessary  media  of  redemption,  or  to  insist  upon  allegiance 
to  some  dogma  of  the  church  as  an  efficacious  or  even 
essential  means  of  grace.  WTiy  is  it  that  soul  culture 
through  sacraments  that  speak  to  the  eye  often  ultimates 
in  undervaluation  of  soul  culture  through  the  word  that 
speaks  to  the  ear,  and  to  the  heart  the  more  persuasively 
that  it  does  speak  to  the  ear,  which  is  the  doonvay  nearest 


THE   ANGLICAN    PULPIT  i8i 

the  inner  life  ?  The  Oxford  movement  has  extravagantly 
furthered  this  sacramental  conception  of  the  means  of 
grace.  Dr.  Arnold  was  right  in  his  charge  against  the 
Tractarians  that  with  them,  "the  sacraments,  and  not 
preaching,  are  the  sources  of  divine  grace."  ^  Thus  it  is 
that  in  the  established  church  it  is  the  clerg\'man,  the 
parson,  or  the  parish  priest  that  comes  to  the  front,  and 
not,  as  in  the  free  churches,  the  preacher.  One  questions 
also  whether  the  dominance,  not  to  say  tyranny,  of  the 
Christian  year,  with  its  necessary  multiplication  of  pubhc 
services,  and  its  necessary  repetition  of  themes  and  texts, 
may  not  measurably  hmit  the  effectiveness  of  AngUcan 
preaching,  partly  by  diminishing  the  preacher's  sense 
of  the  importance  of  the  individual  sermon,  or  by  Hmiting 
his  time  of  preparation,  or  by  overtaxing  his  homiletic 
inventiveness. 

Moreover,  the  social,  pohtical,  and  ecclesiastical  in- 
fluence of  the  church  measurably  supersedes  the  demand 
for  pulpit  effectiveness.  It  has  the  prestige  of  an  estabUsh- 
ment.  Its  Christianity  is  institutional  and  it  handles  a  vast 
combination  of  organized  forces.  The  clergyman  is  con- 
scious of  his  ecclesiastical  strength.  For  his  influence  he 
is  not  dependent  upon  his  resources  as  a  preacher.  The 
free- church  minister  must  trust  largely  to  his  own  personal 
force,  especially  to  his  power  as  a  preacher,  or  rather  to 
a  power  above  him,  and  not  to  a  great  institution,  for  his 
effectiveness  in  reaching  his  fellow-men.  He  has  no 
ecclesiastical  or  pohtical  prestige,  and  he  has  the  harder 
task.  He  hves  under  a  sort  of  ecclesiastical  incubus.  The 
estabhshment  overshadows  him.  Happy  is  he  if  he 
escape  the  arrogance,  or  the  condescending  patronage,  of 
his  professional  brethren,  whose  peer  in  all  high  ministe- 
rial virtues  he  may  be,  but  never  his  equal  in  the  high 
prerogatives    of    the    estabHshed    order.     He   must    gird 

*  Introduction  to  Rugby  Sermons,  quoting  from  "Tracts  for  the 
Times." 


1 82  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

himself.  He  must  reach  men  by  agencies  that  the  church- 
man may  afford  or  thinks  he  may  afford  to  minimize. 
He  must  train  himself  as  an  effective  preacher,  and  all 
the  more  necessary  is  it  because  the  class  which  he  must 
reach  has  for  generations  been  educated  to  respect  good 
preaching  and  is,  as  of  education  and  habit,  responsive 
to  it.  From  the  rhetorical  and  oratorical  point  of  view, 
therefore,  the  free-church  pulpit  is  more  effective  than  that 
of  the  establishment.  And  it  is  this,  in  large  measure, 
perhaps,  that  accounts  for  the  increasing  power  of  Enghsh 
nonconformity. 

ii.  The  note  of  conventionahty  in  Anghcan  preaching 
already  incidentally  referred  to  may  be  further  considered. 
It  suggests  the  dominance  of  tradition  and  custom.  This 
is  in  line  with  the  ecclesiasticism,  the  institutionahsm 
already  spoken  of.  The  typical  Anglican  is  a  traditionaHst, 
and  therefore  a  conservative.  Ecclesiastical  custom  is  the 
common  law  of  the  church,  as  precedent  is  the  common 
law  of  the  state.  All  this,  doubtless,  has  its  partial  justi- 
fication. It  is,  in  some  sort,  a  source  of  strength  to  the 
church.  But  in  its  extreme  form  it  becomes  conven- 
tionahsm.  It  suggests  undue  regard  for  what  is  ex- 
ternal and  unessential.  There  is  often  a  suggestion  of 
the  artificial,  the  mechanical,  about  the  preacher,  as  if  he 
were  accustomed  to  deal  with  things  that  are  a  little  foreign 
to  him,  because  they  came  from  without  and  not  from 
within.  It  suggests  the  clerical  habit  of  mind,  the  habit 
of  one  whose  calhng  is  a  profession.  Hence  a  defective 
personahty,  a  lack  of  what  is  distinctive  and  individual. 
There  is  always  a  certain  suggestion  of  smallness  about 
the  typical  clerical  habit  of  mind.  Things  of  small  import, 
things  that  do  not  concern  the  larger  interests  of  men,  that 
do  not  touch  the  weightier  matters  of  Hfe,  are  exploited 
in  the  most  extraordinary,  painstaking  manner.  One 
is  constrained  to  believe  that  the  cathoHcity,  of  which  we 
hear  so  much  from  the  Anghcan  church,  is  largely  external 


THE   ANGLICAN   PULPIT  183 

and  formal.  It  lacks  breadth  of  humanity.  It  sometimes 
suggests  in  the  preacher  a  defective  sense  of  reaUty.  The 
basis  of  all  this  is  the  dominance  of  tradition.  It  is  the 
ecclesiastical,  the  institutional  principle,  and  this  is  the 
basis  of  the  dogmatic  principle  that  has  taken  strong  hold 
of  a  large  section  of  the  Anghcan  church.  It  is  the 
principle  that  commits  the  preacher  to  various  forms  of 
external  authority.  It  results  in  a  lack  of  the  experimental 
quahty  in  preaching.  Of  course  the  preacher  does  not 
fail  wholly  to  appropriate  personally  what  he  holds  for 
truth.  Of  course  he  is  not  necessarily  insincere  in  what 
he  says.  Indeed  he  often  takes  the  matter  in  hand  mightily 
to  heart,  despite  its  triviahty,  and  makes  it  a  matter  of 
most  solemn  conscientiousness.  But  the  preacher  who 
is  a  traditionahst,  who  appropriates  and  works  in  the 
dogmatic  principle,  never  completely  domesticates  the 
truth  in  his  own  inner  Hfe.  He  may  work  up  a  great 
amount  of  feehng  about  it,  may  be  very  solemn  and 
polemically  strenuous  in  his  proclamation  of  it,  and  may 
take  his  conscience  into  very  close  alhance  with  it;  he 
is  doing  something  that  he  ought  to  do,  he  is  under  the 
constraint  of  obligation  to  the  church  to  do  it,  even  though 
there  may  be  but  httle  constraint  of  heart  in  it.  But 
such  a  man  may  never  have  domesticated  the  truth  in  his 
intelUgence  or  given  it  such  a  home  in  his  personal  feehng 
and  conviction  as  intelligence  would  have  secured  for  it. 
A  good  deal  of  the  preaching  which  in  time  past  has  been 
heard  in  the  Anglican  church  suggests  that  what  the 
preacher  says  has  never  taken  thorough  hold  of  his  mind. 
Indeed  the  preacher  may  even  find  a  sort  of  virtue  in 
denying  the  necessity  that  the  truth  should  dominate  the 
mind.  The  truth  must  be  received  by  faith,  must  it  not? 
faith,  that  is,  in  some  sort  of  external  authority,  not  faith 
in  one's  own  mental,  moral,  and  spiritual  experiences, 
in  one's  intuitions,  instincts,  impulses,  and  rational  pro- 
cesses.    One  may  be  very  rigorous  in  the  advocacy  of 


l84  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

what  is  in  fact  not  more  than  half  real  to  him.  It  is  a 
matter  of  loyalty  to  tradition,  to  church,  to  Bible,  to  truth 
which  rests  for  support  on  some  sort  of  external  authority. 
The  feelings  may  easily  become  enlisted  in  the  advocacy 
of  such  authority,  and  the  conscience  may  sanctify  it. 
This  was  the  earnestness  of  John  Henry  Newman.' 
It  was  doubtless  genuine.  But  it  was  dogmatic  earnest- 
ness. He  did  not  claim  to  utter  what  had  become  a  matter 
of  intellectual  experience.  He  even  denied  the  necessity, 
or  even  in  some  cases  the  possibihty,  that  it  should  become 
a  matter  of  such  experience.  He  was  at  liberty  to  sacrifice 
his  intellect  in  the  interests  of  a  dogmatic  faith.  Of 
course  we  may  not  successfully  deny  all  value  to  external 
authority.  But  such  authority,  without  adequate  subjec- 
tive verification,  may  lead  the  finer  spirits  of  the  pulpit 
into  fanaticism  and  the  coarser  spirits  into  conventionahsm 
and  unreahty.  The  question  for  the  experimentalist  in 
religion  is,  What  can  be  defended  and  vindicated  within 
the  realm  of  the  inner  life  ?  What  is  it  that  finds  response 
in  my  entire  inner  manhood  ?  Let  me  have  that  truth  and 
it  shall  become  my  message.  It  is  the  theology  of  experi- 
ence, the  theology  of  the  message,  with  which  such  a  man 
deals.  A  man  may  hold  more  truth  than  enters  into  his 
message,  but  he  will  hold  it  in  reserve.  It  is  not  that  the 
average  Anglican  preacher  seems  to  hold  in  reserve  more 
truth  than  he  preaches.  He  seems  to  preach  more  than  he 
really  holds,  more  than  he  holds  as  a  hving  reahty  within 
him.  He  has  on  hand  a  stock  of  truths  passed  on  to  him 
by  tradition  which  he  thinks  it  important  to  proclaim,  not 
because  it  is  an  inner  necessity,  as  being  his  message,  but 
because  it  is  a  matter  of  trust,  because  the  church  has  given 
it  to  him  and  told  him  to  teach  it.  He  teaches  as  the  Scribes 
and  not  as  one  who  finds  authority  in  his  own  inner  world  of 
experience.  All  truth  that  is  given  by  external  authority 
must  remain  measurably  external  to  the  preacher  until  it  is 

*  "  Representative  Modern  Preachers,"  Ch.  VI. 


THE   ANGLICAN   PULPIT 


185 


comprehensively  vindicated  in  his  own  inner  life.  One  feels 
the  lack,  in  a  good  deal  of  the  preaching  of  the  AngUcan 
church,  of  such  passionate  earnestness  of  conviction  and 
of  consecration,  such  high  sense  of  personal  vocation, 
such  compulsion  of  inner  constraint,  as  one  finds  in  Robert- 
son. There  may  be  an  unworldly  note  in  much  of  this 
ecclesiastical  preaching,  but  it  is  likely  to  be  ascetic  and 
external.  It  lacks  the  note  of  human  brotherUness.  The 
preacher  may  be  a  good  convivial  fellow  on  occasion, 
and  may  put  on  an  austere  unworldliness  as  he  puts  on 
his  clerical  robes.  Robertson  was  scandalized  that  clergy- 
men in  his  day  could  be  self-indulgent  and  luxurious 
in  their  ordinary  hving  and  practise  occasional  asceti- 
cism and  deal  out  pious  sentiments  from  the  pulpit  and 
continue  to  cherish  mahgnity  and  uncharitableness  of 
spirit.  It  was  a  conventional  unworldliness  and  a  piety 
that  had  degenerated  into  cant.  The  morale  of  the 
Anghcan  clergy  is  doubdess  much  better  than  it  was  in 
his  day.  But  there  still  lingers  a  certain  slavish  sense  of 
church  authority.  There  is  a  false  idea  of  what  the  church 
may  legitimately  demand  of  its  preachers  which  is  freely 
criticised  by  its  more  modem  representatives.^  There 
is  a  consequent  lack  of  intellectual  independence,  and  of 
that  individuahty  and  that  spontaneity  which  are  con- 
ditioned by  such  independence.  There  is  a  lack  of  what 
is  common  and  human.  The  preacher,  who  is  afraid  to 
assert  his  own  personal  intellectual  rights,  or  who  has  no 
sense  of  his  right  to  interpret  the  theology  of  tradition  in 
the  hght  of  his  own  day,  will  be  conventional.  His  preach- 
ing will  lack  the  timely  note.  Only  the  truth  that  comes 
out  of  the  experience  of  the  preacher  and  appeals  to  the 
experience  of  the  hearer  will  carry  the  note  of  reahty. 
This  only  will  edify,  for  it  only  finds  touching  points  with 
real  needs, 
iii.   There  is  still  further  involved  in  much  of  the  preach- 

*  See  Archdeacon  Wilson's  "  Pastoral  Theolog}-,"  passim. 


l86  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

ing  of  the  Anglican  church  an  inadequate  or  defective 
teaching  basis.  It  is  not  merely  that  its  thought  quantity 
is  meagre  and  its  thought  quahty  lacking  in  breadth  and 
strength.  The  truth  that  is  presented  is,  to  a  large 
extent,  somehow  ill  adapted  to  the  practical  needs  of  men, 
and  thus  is  relatively  unfruitful.  In  so  far  as  the  theology 
presented  is  the  theology  of  tradition,  the  theology  of  church 
authority,  inadequately  interpreted  in  the  light  of  modern 
life,  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  the  preacher  can  immediately 
avail  himself  of  it  in  the  most  fruitful  work  of  the  pulpit 
or  of  the  parish.  The  traditional  Anghcan  theology 
is  not  an  effective  working  theology.  Archdeacon  Wilson, 
in  his  "Pastoral  Theology,"^  a  work  that  discloses  the 
spirit  of  the  broad  churchman,  ventures  the  assertion  that 
"the  popular  English  theology  of  to-day  is  degenerate." 
It  is  the  theology  of  a  people,  he  does  not  hesitate  to  say, 
that  have  practically  ruled  God  out  of  human  life.  He 
is  a  God  that  has  become  easily  "negligible"  because  He  is 
treated  as  one  who  is  indifferent  to  human  sin  and  misery, 
and  who  tolerates  a  Hke  indifference  in  men.  This 
no-theology  is  the  theology  of  the  nation,  and  its  utter 
weakness,  he  maintains,  is  the  cause  of  the  "absence  of 
any  high  ideals  of  national  hfe."  This  theology,  he 
moreover  asserts,  is  practically  the  theology  of  a  large 
section  of  the  church.  This  is  certainly  a  very  sweeping 
assertion  and  perhaps  requires  considerable  Hmitation, 
if  not  correction.  It  cannot  be  true  of  the  theology  of  a 
large  section  of  the  nonconforming  community.  But 
in  this  arraignment  of  the  church  Dr.  Wilson  evidently 
has  in  mind  the  AngUcan  communion,  which,  as  the  state 
church,  undertakes  to  represent  the  theology  of  the  nation. 
He  doubtless  knows  whereof  he  affirms  and  one  may  not 
venture  to  challenge  the  truth  of  his  charge.  It  is  not,  he 
would  say,  that  a  true  theology,  a  theology  that  can  be 

*"  Pastoral    Theology,"   Cambridge    University    Lectures  of   1903, 
Lecture  II. 


THE   ANGLICAN   PULPIT  187 

effectively  preached,  may  not  be  found  in  the  standards  of 
the  church.  It  is  rather  that  it  is  not  adequately  or  correctly 
interpreted  in  the  hght  of  modem  life  and  appUed  to  the 
practical  everyday  needs  of  men.  He  calls,  therefore,  for  a 
theology  that  shall  interpret  God  more  worthily,  that  shall 
penetrate  human  life,  and  elevate  the  church  and  nation,  a 
theology  that  shall  reach  not  only  individual  men,  but 
masses  of  men  in  sin  and  misery.  It  is  perfectly  evident 
that  in  so  far  as  AngHcan  theology  is  a  relic  of  traditional 
Enghsh  deism,  it  must  handicap  the  Anglican  pulpit.  The 
preaching  that  is  based  upon  it  will  lack  vitality,  will 
lack  the  note  of  humanity,  will  lack  the  inspiration  of  a 
great  message.  The  modem  world  is  pressing  hard  upon 
the  church,  but  the  church  lingers  behind  in  the  realm 
of  tradition.  It  is  not  merely  that  AngHcan  preaching 
is  prevailingly  dogmatic  in  substance  or  form.  It  lacks 
the  strength  of  the  dogmatic  preaching  of  a  former 
period.  It  is  to  a  large  extent  Bibhcal.  But  its  Biblical 
quality  is  archaic.  The  Biblical  scholarship  of  the 
church  has  made  great  advance.  The  names  of  eminent 
Bibhcal  scholars  in  all  branches  of  the  church  will  occur 
at  once.  This  work  of  Bibhcal  scholarship  stands  ready 
for  use.  But  the  average  preacher  has  not  in  his  handling 
of  the  Bible  kept  pace  with  the  new  scholarship.  Many 
of  the  ablest  preachers  of  the  church  have  failed  to  do  it. 
Robertson's  success  as  a  Biblical  preacher  suggests  the 
need  of  our  day.  Bibhcal  scholarship  does  not  reach 
the  pulpit  as  it  should.  This  is  doubtless  true  with 
respect  to  all  the  EngHsh  churches,  true  indeed  with  re- 
spect to  all  the  churches  of  Christendom,  except  those  that 
have  entered  most  deeply  into  the  spirit  and  needs  of  mod- 
em hfe.  But  this  defect  is  more  pronounced  in  the  estab- 
lished than  in  the  free  churches.  The  archaic  note  lingers 
strangely  about  the  Anghcan  sermon.  The  rituahstic 
preacher,  especially,  discloses  what  has  been  called  the 
"typological  concupiscence"  in  a  most  astonishing  man- 


l88  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

ner.  And  from  low  as  well  as  high  churchmen  one  will 
hear  allegorizing  and  typologizing  of  so  grotesque  a  charac- 
ter that  it  is  impossible  that  they  should  command  the  in- 
tellectual respect  of  any  inteUigent  modern  man.  There 
is  in  such  preaching  a  lack  of  freshness  and  variety  in  sub- 
ject-matter. The  archaeological,  as  distinguished  from  the 
modern,  practical,  appUcatory  aspects  of  the  subjects  dis- 
cussed are  kept  in  the  foreground.  The  preacher  does  not 
furnish  adequate  contributions  from  his  own  resources.  He 
fails  to  bring  the  truth  into  close  connection  with  the  ob- 
servations and  experiences  of  everyday  Hfe,  and  its  funda- 
mental principles  are  not  adequately  interpreted  in  the  light 
of  the  modern  world.  But  httle  seems  to  be  expected  of  the 
ordinary  pastoral  preacher,  or  the  expectation,  if  it  exists, 
does  not  find  itself  met,  and  only  the  man  of  exceptional 
enterprise,  or  of  exceptional  homiletic  gifts,  or  of  exceptional 
moral  earnestness,  will  spend  time  in  the  preparation  of  dis- 
courses that  will  command  the  intellectual  respect  or  the 
moral  enthusiasm  of  men.  By  reason  of  this  devotion  to 
dogmatic  tradition  we  find  defective  pulpit  power  espe- ' 
cially  in  the  exaggerated  or  stagnant  types  of  high  and 
low  AngUcanism.  But  in  corresponding  types  of  broad 
AngHcanism  we  find  too  often  an  abandonment  by 
the  preacher  of  those  high  and  worthy  ideas  of  a  super- 
natural religion  that  are  necessary  to  give  cogency  to  his 
message. 

iv.  Defective  estimate  of  the  preacher's  task,  unreasoning 
devotion  to  tradition,  and  failure  of  an  effective  working 
theology  will  naturally  result  in  defective  aim.  Preaching 
thus  conditioned  will  be  institutional  in  aim  as  in  spirit. 
If  it  does  not  make  the  interests  of  the  institution  an 
end,  it  will  unduly  exalt  it  as  means.  The  rituahstic 
preacher  aims  at  the  production  of  a  churchly  mind. 
The  church  is  fully  equipped  with  the  means  of 
grace,  is  it  not?  Where  in  adequate  measure  shall  we 
find  them  if  not  here  ?     It  is  supremely  important,  there- 


THE  ANGLICAN   PULPIT  1 89 

fore,  to  keep  men  under  church  influences.     Only  the 
churchly  mind  can  be  the  fully  Christian  mind.     The 
Oxford 'movement  in  the  interest  of  the  external  authority 
of  the  church  has  been  greatly  tributary  to  the  cultivation 
of  the  ecclesiastical  mind,  and  especially  of  the  dogmatic 
mind,  and  after  a  certain  sort  of  the  dogmatic  interest  m 
preaching.     High  Anghcanism  lacks  the  broad  evangelistic 
spirit  and  aim.     It  lacks  also  a  comprehensive  ethical 
aim.     It  has  failed  to  grapple  broadly  and  in  the  use  of 
modem  instruments  with  the  evils  that  abound  in  modem 
English  Kfe.     It  has  kept  itself  too  remotely  aloof  from 
the  great,  real,  human  worid  about  it.     It  has  not  appre- 
ciated the  intellectual  difficulties  of  educated  men.     It  has 
even  found  it  difficult  to  comprehend  them.     It  has  not 
showTi  sufficient  sympathv  with  the  modern  spirit  and  with 
modem  methods.     It  has  dealt  largely  with  the  individual, 
and  its  social  conscience,  it  is  charged,  has  been  made- 
quatelv  developed.     There  is  a  lack,  it  is  claimed,  of  patri- 
otic aspiration  to  support  those  moral  ideals  that  honor  the 
nation.     The  sharp  distinction  between  the  secular  and 
the  sacred  counterworks  the   loftiest  social  and  pohtical 
aspirations.     In  churchlv  ways  a  great  amount  of  work 
is  doubtless  done  in  the  interest  of  the  unblessed  classes, 
but  that  does  not  mean  that  the  import  and  scope  of 
social    problems    are    adequately    apprehended.     It    is 
charged  that,  unUke  the  ministers  of  the  United  States, 
the  AngUcan  clergy  have  in  general  not  been  leaders  in 
(Treat  questions  of  reform.     Nor  have  the  bishops,  with  all 
their  leaming  and  executive  abihty,  been  pioneers  m  the 
intellectual  and  social  progress  of  the  age. 

In  the  evangehcal  communion  there  has  been  a  lack 
of  catholicity  of  spirit  and  comprehensiveness  of  aim. 
Robertson's  charge  that  its  preaching  bore  the  marks 
of  pietistic  narrowness  and  of  moral  unreality  is  doubtless 
less  appUcable  to  the  present  day,  for  during  the  last  fifty 
vears  the  influences  of  modem  Hfe  have  been  effectively 


igo  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

at  work  upon  it,  and  many  who  are  in  spirit  broad  church- 
men are  numbered  with  the  evangeHcals.  But  evangelical- 
ism, in  so  far  as  it  holds  to  its  narrow  theology  and  its 
one-sided  emotional  experiences  of  religion,  still  fails  in 
the  production  of  the  broadest  and  most  inteUigent  type 
of  moral  and  religious  manhood. 

The  broad  church,  with  its  humanistic  aims  and  motives, 
has  not  failed  in  social  conscience.  It  has  grappled  with 
the  hard  problems  of  English  industrial  and  social  Ufe. 
But  it  too  has  its  left  wing,  which  has  become  naturahstic 
and  unfruitful,  exalting  the  ethical  as  against  the  religious 
ideal,  and  cutting  free  from  the  central  source  of  all  highest 
moral  inspirations.  Failing  thus  in  a  worthy  teaching 
basis,  it  fails  in  worthy  aim. 

V.  For  the  typical  Anglican  preacher  the  artistic  interest 
that  seeks  perfection  of  homiletic  or  rhetorical  form  is 
manifestly  a  matter  of  but  sHght  importance.  Why 
should  the  preacher,  whose  culture  fails  to  exalt  the  very 
highest  conception  of  his  work,  who  does  not  grapple 
vaUantly  vdth  a  great  and  vital  message,  who  is  slow  to 
choose  themes  of  pertinent,  practical  import,  who  has  an 
inadequately  definite  or  comprehensive  aim  —  why  should 
he  care  greatly  for  logical,  rhetorical,  or  perhaps  hterary 
form?  The  discourse  that  does  not  aim  consciously  at 
strong  impression  is  pretty  sure  not  to  take  the  form  of  a 
rhetorical  or  oratorical  address.  It  falls  naturally  into 
the  style  of  the  essay  or  homily,  and  this  in  time  past  has 
been  the  prevailing  type  of  the  Anghcan  homiletic  product. 
Such  a  product  will  lack  the  grip  and  force  that  character- 
ize the  well-ordered  address.  The  homily  cannot  meet  the 
needs  of  the  modem  world.  We  need  BibUcal  preaching, 
it  is  true,  of  the  expository  type.  A  better  knowledge 
of  the  Bible  calls  for  it.  But  Robertson  showed  himself 
a  true  orator  as  well  as  preacher  in  organizing  his  expository 
material  in  sermon  form.  Dr.  Joseph  Parker,  it  is  true, 
succeeded    with    the    BibUcal    homily.     Other    modern 


THE  ANGLICAN   PULPIT  191 

preachers  have  been  measurably  successful  with  it,  and 
some  of  the  most  acceptable  modern  preachers  do  good 
pulpit  work  with  the  essay.  But  success  here  is  due 
largely  to  the  rhetorical  or  hterary  genius  of  the  preacher. 
If  the  preacher  seeks  a  succession  of  remotely  related,  but 
vivid  impressions  of  a  kaleidoscopic  sort,  he  will  succeed 
with  the  homily  or  essay  in  securing  interest  if  he  have  the 
requisite  nimbleness  of  imagination,  and  the  mastery  of 
a  cogent  type  of  speech.  But  if  he  will  seek  cumulative 
mental  and  moral  impression  and  will  edify  the  hearer 
in  reUgious  knowledge,  he  will  organize  his  material  in 
sermon  form.  A  lack  of  orderly  sequence  of  thought  is 
characteristic  of  much  Anghcan  preaching.  The  discourse, 
as  already  noted,  is  generally  written  and  read,  but  the 
hearer  fails  to  carry  away  a  connected  view  of  the  subject 
discussed.  One  recognizes  also  a  corresponding  lack  of 
straightforward  directness  as  of  one  who  is  bent  upon 
bringing  something  to  pass.  There  is  too  much  generaU- 
zation,  and  a  corresponding  lack  of  "searching"  quality. 
A  conventional  tone,  a  stereotyped  form,  and  a  prosaic 
diction  are  the  marks  of  many  an  Anghcan  sermon  one 
will  hear  even  in  our  day.  It  is  said  that  the  church  is 
"suffering  from  the  prevailing  use  of  17th  century  EngUsh 
in  rehgious  teaching."  ^  If  it  were  the  crisp  and  energetic 
EngHsh  of  Robert  South  which  the  preacher  affects,  he 
might  do  worse.  But  the  import  of  the  charge  is  that  the 
diction  of  the  pulpit  is  conventional  and  professional. 
It  is  remote  from  the  common  hfe  of  our  day,  as  if  the 
preacher  were  burdened  with  an  awful  sense  of  clerical 
propriety  and  as  if  the  "language  of  the  clergy,  Hke  their 
dress,  ought  to  be  different  from  that  of  other  people." 
In  rhetorical  effectiveness,  as  well  as  in  logical  consist- 
ency and  coherency,  the  preaching  of  the  EngUsh  free 
churches  is  doubtless  in  advance  of  that  of  the  estab- 
Ushed  church. 

'  Wilson's  "  Pastoral  Theology,"  60. 


192  THE   MODERN  PULPIT 

II. 

In  the  foregoing  analysis  I  have  had  in  mind  only  tra- 
ditional tendencies.  But  material  modifications  in  the 
pulpit  product  are  manifest  in  all  branches  of  the  church, 
and  what  has  been  said  will  have  to  be  subjected  to  much 
limitation.  There  are  found  preachers  in  all  schools 
who  know  how  to  combine  all  the  elements,  intellectual, 
ethical,  spiritual,  and  artistic  of  a  genuine  comprehensive 
homiletic  product.  And  even  where  there  is  a  lack  of 
homiletic  comprehensiveness  and  completeness  there 
are  often  sahent,  individual  quahties  in  the  AngHcan 
preaching  of  our  day  that  render  it  more  effective  than 
that  which  was  prevalent  at  the  beginning  of  the  last 
century.  Let  us,  therefore,  look  more  specifically  at  the 
different  schools  of  Anghcan  preaching,  especially  as 
illustrated  by  individual  preachers. 

i.  The  Oxford  revival,  with  its  cooperative  influences, 
has  resulted  in  a  modification  and  betterment  of  the  preach- 
ing of  high  AngUcanism,  even  in  its  most  extravagant 
rituahstic  form.  Its  worship,  with  all  its  excesses,  has  been 
enriched,  and  its  representative  clergy  are  men  of  larger 
gifts  and  better  culture.  Whatever  may  be  thought  about 
its  reactionary  teachings,  and  its  contribution  to  the  dog- 
matic method  and  to  the  ecclesiastical  spirit  already  referred 
to,  the  reUgious  tone  of  its  preaching  is  more  elevated,  more 
devout,  more  earnest,  sympathetic,  real,  and  practical, 
and  in  the  hands  of  its  best  preachers  often  reaches  a 
great  height  of  rehgious  eloquence.  Churchly  in  tone, 
indeed,  it  never  wholly  ceases  to  be,  but  it  discloses  an 
aspiration  to  reach  a  higher  degree  of  popular  effective- 
ness as  well  as  of  edifying  instructiveness.  Some  of  the 
most  popular  preachers  of  the  church,  in  the  best  sense 
of  the  word,  are  found  in  this  school.  In  its  emotionally 
rhetorical  efforts  to  reach  men  it  becomes  sometimes 
even  strikingly  sensational.     Dr.  Body,  Canon  of  Durham, 


THE   ANGLICAN   PULPIT  193 

a  most  acceptable  mission  preacher,  illustrates  this  popular 
style  of  preaching.  Its  preaching  has  also  reached  a  higher 
grade  of  intellectual  Hfe.  It  has  taken  hold  of  theological 
problems,  and  to  some  extent  it  has  interested  itself  in  the 
critical  questions  of  the  day.  The  theological  Hterature 
that  had  its  primal  inspiration  in  the  Oxford  movement 
is  very  copious.  The  themes  discussed  and  the  method 
of  discussion  may  often  seem  archaic.  It  may  deal  with 
subjects  which  the  modem  man  regards  as  of  but  relatively 
little  importance.  But  some  of  the  most  competent 
scholars  of  the  church  are  found  here.  Lightfoot  was 
regarded  as  the  most  accompHshed  Bibhcal  scholar  of  the 
church  in  his  day.  His  critical  conclusions  as  to  the  his- 
toric episcopate  and  some  other  vexed  ecclesiastical 
and  theological  questions  doubtless  took  him  out  of  full 
relation  with  the  extremists  of  his  party,  but  he  was  to  the 
end  a  high  churchman.  All  the  intellectual  agitations  of 
the  age  which  have  been  conditioned  by  modem  scientific, 
philosophic,  economic,  critical,  and  literary  movements 
have  secured  for  the  preaching  of  this  school,  as  represented 
by  a  few  prominent  men,  a  great  enrichment  of  fibre,  and 
in  hterary  quality  it  reaches  a  higher  mark.  The  Uterary 
influence  of  Newman,  and  scarcely  less  the  influence  of 
his  religious  intensity,  seem  to  Hnger  here,  and  some  of 
the  most  cultivated  and  effective  preachers  of  the  church 
are  found  in  this  school.  Ecclesiastical  and  missionary 
activity  has  been  greatly  stimulated,  and  there  has  followed 
a  great  enlargement  of  high-church  influence.  High-church 
bishops  have  acquired  great  popularity  an,d  prestige. 
Candidates  for  orders  have  pressed  into  their  jurisdiction 
and  sought  service  under  them.  Robertson  turned  from  all 
others  and  sought  service  under  the  high  Anglican  bishop 
of  Oxford.  In  missionary  enthusiasm  the  evangelicals, 
who  have  long  been  noted  for  their  philanthropic  zeal, 
find  in  this  school  their  rivals.  Few  modern  missionaries 
are  comparable  in  zeal  and  devotion  with  some  of  those 


194  THE   MODERN    PULPIT 

connected  with  this  body.  Bishop  Heber  was  a  high 
churchman,  and  so  were  Pattison  and  Selwjoi,  well-nigh 
incomparable  heroes  of  the  Christian  faith,  at  whose 
.consecrated  moral  and  spiritual  power  the  entire  modern 
church  must  marvel.  The  leaders  of  this  school,  especially, 
have  many  of  them  been  led  into  extensive  efforts  on  be- 
half of  the  unchurched  and  unblessed.  Bishop  Lightfoot 
was  a  friend  and  supporter  of  the  Salvation  Army.  He 
was  actively  interested  in  temperance  reform,  advocating 
and  practising  total  abstinence.  He  was  the  founder  of 
the  "White  Cross  Society,"  one  of  the  numerous  voluntary 
associations  under  the  direction  of  the  church  devoted 
to  the  work  of  Chrisdan  philanthropy.  The  spirit  of 
high  AngHcanism  is  gradually  adapting  itself,  measurably 
at  least,  but  as  of  necessity,  to  the  demands  of  modem 
thought  as  well  as  modern  life.  The  Tractarian  move- 
ment, as  Canon  Holland  of  St.  Paul's  suggests,  has  begun 
"to  work  out  new  grooves  and  receives  fresh  tributaries." 
In  line  with  this  progressive  movement  the  preaching  of 
high  Anghcanism,  in  its  best  estate,  has  become  more 
experimental,  more  reflective,  entering  more  deeply  into 
the  inner  Hfe,  dealing  more  fully  and  more  effectively 
with  the  practical  working  relations  of  Christ,  not  only 
with  the  individual  soul,  but  with  the  associate  Uves  of 
men,  is  less  objective,  less  ecclesiastical,  less  dogmatic, 
not  only  in  tone  but  in  substance,  as  dealing  more  broadly 
with  the  common  Christian  truth  and  less  distinctively 
with  the  specific  tenets  of  the  church  and  the  school. 

Let  us  now  turn  our  attention  briefly  to  a  few  of  the 
chief  representative  preachers  of  this  school,  who  disclose 
some  more  fully  than  others,  but  all  in  a  measure,  touching 
points  with  the  modern  world. 

By  reason  of  his  close  connection  with  the  Oxford 
movement,  his  high  character,  comprehensive  genius, 
wide-reaching  influence,  and  popular  power  as  a  pulpit 
and  platform  orator,  it  is  natural  that  first  of  all  Wilber- 


THE   ANGLICAN   PULPIT  195 

force,  Bishop  of  Oxford  and  of  Winchester,  son  of  the 
great  EngHsh  philanthropist,  should  claim  our  attention. 
After  Newman,  he  may  perhaps  be  called  the  earhest 
representative  of  the  more  effective  modern  type  of  high 
Anglican  preaching.  In  the  variety  of  his  gifts  and  ap- 
titudes—  administrative,  social,  political,  philanthropic, 
literary,  and  oratorical — he  was  so  superior  to  the  Anghcan 
officials  of  his  day  that  he  has  been  called  the  greatest 
bishop  of  the  church  of  England  during  the  last  two  hun- 
dred years.  Nurtured  in  the  evangeHcal  school,  as  have 
been  so  many  distinguished  churchmen,  who  subsequently 
abandoned  it,  in  some  of  his  opinions  always  afhhated 
with  it,  he  became  by  conviction  a  high  churchman  and 
leader  of  his  party.  He  was  consecrated  as  bishop  of 
Oxford  about  the  time  Newman  left  the  church,  and  as 
preacher  at  St.  Mary's  he  was  almost  Newman's  equal 
in  popularity.  In  his  handling  of  church  affairs  he  was 
moderate  and  well  balanced,  taking  no  extreme  positions 
on  theological  or  ecclesiastical  questions,  practically  tol- 
erant ahke  of  ritualism  on  the  one  side  and  of  HberaUsm, 
poHtical  and  ecclesiastical,  on  the  other,  with  neither  of 
which  he  had  personal  sympathy.  It  was  through  him, 
as  already  intimated,  that  Robertson,  who  had  known 
him  at  Winchester,  went  to  St.  Ebbs,  Oxford,  and  by  his 
advice  that  he  subsequently  went  to  Brighton.  The 
two  men  understood  each  other.  When,  in  confidence, 
Robertson  told  the  bishop  of  his  change  of  theological 
views,  he  was  simply  commended  for  the  skill  with  which 
he  set  them  forth  and  the  offer  of  St.  Ebbs  was  renewed. 
Wilberforce  was  best  known,  perhaps,  for  his  extraor- 
dinary administrative  abihty.  He  shared  his  father's 
philanthropic  spirit  as.  well  as  his  skill  and  effectiveness 
in  accomplishing  results.  In  enlarging  and  enriching 
educational  work  for  his  clergy  and  in  promoting  mission- 
ary and  philanthropic  effort,  his  bishopric  was  in  the 
highest  degree  successful.    And  to  all  these  efforts  his 


196  THE    MODERN   PULPIT 

power  as  a  public  speaker  was  directly  tributary.     For 
he  was  a  man  of  literary  and  of  rhetorical  and  oratorical, 
as  well  as  of  administrative,  gifts,  and  might  have  made  a 
name  for  himself  in  literature  and  achieved  larger  success 
as  an  orator.     The  two  large  volumes  of  essays,  originally 
contributions   to    the   Qimrterly  Review,    are   character- 
ized by  thoroughness  of  treatment  and  by  dignity  and 
clearness  of  style.     But  some  of  the  products  of  his  eariier 
leisure  have  a  touch  of  hterary  refinement  and  dehcacy 
that  bespeak  a  genius  for  the  higher  phases  of  literature. 
His  father  made  careful   provision  for  his  training  as  a 
public   speaker.     He   was  an   Oriel  man  and   breathed 
the  literary  atmosphere  for  which  it  was  noted,  and  as  a 
member  of   the    Oxford    Union,    where    Robertson   and 
Ruskin  met,  he  found  a  sphere  for  training  in  debate. 
This  culture  he  carried  into  the  House  of  Lords,  where  he 
was  preeminent  in  all  high  discussion,  always  command- 
ing respectful  attention,  and    sometunes  carrying  impor- 
tant measures  by  his  skilful  and  forceful  presentation. 
He  carried  the  forensic   habit  into  the  pulpit.     His  in- 
fluence as  a  preacher  was  indeed  ephemeral,  for  although 
he   spoke  most  effectively,   he   produced   but  transitory 
effects.     There  is  but  httle  left  that  illustrates  his  pulpit 
power.     He  turned  his  strength  in  other  directions.     He 
was  an  extemporaneous  preacher.     He  advised  his  clergy, 
however,  to  write  at  least  one  sermon  a  week  for  many 
years  and  advocated  preparation  only  when  full  and  hot 
with  the  subject,  warning  against   all  duhiess  and   mo- 
notony, to  which  latter  ad\ice  he  was  himself  personally 
faithful.     With  the  facihty  of  an  extemporaneous  preacher 
he  adjusted  his  discourses  to  the  unmediate  needs  of  his 
audiences,  and  was  equally  at  home  in  addressing  the  House 
of  Lords,  a  university  audience,  a  clerical  convocation,  or 
a   congregation  of  the  poor  and   uninstructed.     To   the 
latter  class  especially  he  could  speak  with  telHng  effect. 
His  thought,  in  the  higher  class  of  discourses,  was  sub- 


THE   ANGLICAN  PULPIT  197 

stantial,  after  the  best  rather  than  the  average  Anglican 
fashion,  his  development  orderly  and  well  balanced, 
his  utterance  strongly  emotional,  his  diction  elevated, 
felicitous,  and  forceful  in  ethical  intensity,  and  he  is  said  to 
have  had  the  external  appointments  of  a  first-class  English 
orator.  Through  him  Newman's  high  standard  of  effective 
preaching  was  perpetuated,  although  in  very  dififerent  form. 

St.  Paul's  Cathedral  in  London  has  been  closely  afiih- 
ated  with  high  Anglicanism,  and  its  prominent  officials 
during  the  last  forty  or  fifty  years  have  been  among  the 
most  cultivated  and  interesting  preachers  in  the  English 
church.  Under  their  leadership  the  cathedral  has  been 
renewed,  its  services  multiplied,  its  worship  enriched, 
and  it  has  become  a  centre  for  London  of  intellectual, 
religious,  and  philanthropic  activity. 

Dean  Goulbum,  of  Norwich,  was,  as  a  preacher,  a 
representative  in  an  eminent  degree  of  the  devoutly 
religious  aspect  of  modem  high  Anghcanism.  He  was, 
at  one  time,  head  master  at  Rugby,  following  Dr.  Tait, 
who  was  Arnold's  immediate  successor,  and  he  was  sub- 
sequently connected  with  St.  Paul's.  He  was  preemi- 
nently a  pastoral  preacher,  and  a  successful  guide  of  souls 
in  the  perplexities  of  the  reUgious  life.  His  preaching 
was  eminently  of  a  devotional  character  and  his  discourses 
in  the  interest  of  a  devotional  life  are  of  permanent  value. 
He  was  highly  realistic  in  many  of  his  theological  con- 
ceptions, especially  in  his  behef  in  the  existence  of  evil 
spirits  and  in  their  malign  influence  upon  the  intellectual 
activities  of  men,  and  as  a  high-church  conservative  was 
out  of  all  sympathy  with  many  of  the  views  of  the  liberal 
school,  as  represented  for  example  by  Archdeacon  Farrar, 
whose  eschatological  teachings  he  antagonized.  But  he 
was  withal  a  thoughtful,  suggestive,  and  eminently  practical 
preacher.  Two  volumes,  originally  sermons,  possibly  of 
the  Rugby  period,  "Thoughts  on  Personal  Religion" 
and  "The  Pursuit  of  Holiness,"  are  among  the  very  best 


198  THE   MODERN    PULPIT 

specimens  of  modem  devotional  literature  and  are  of 
present-day  value  in  the  pastoral  guidance  of  souls.  He 
had  the  flowing  grace  of  diction  that  is  characteristic  of 
the  Hterary  style  of  so  many  of  the  cultivated  high  Anghcan 
preachers,  and  is  said  to  have  had  a  most  musical  voice 
and  a  very  dehberate,  dignified,  and  impressive  manner, 
without  any  stiffness  or  conventionaHty. 

Bishop  Lightfoot  of  Durham,  the  scholar  of  high 
AngUcanism,  was  also  attached  to  St.  Paul's,  his  appoint- 
ment following  that  of  Canon  Liddon,  by  Mr.  Gladstone 
in  1870.  Although  known  most  widely  as  a  scholar,  he 
was  an  interesting  and  eminently  helpful  preacher.  His 
"Cambridge  Sermons,"  delivered  at  Trinity  College 
Chapel  and  before  the  university,  convey  a  distinct  impres- 
sion of  his  gifts  as  a  preacher.  They  bear  no  trace  of 
high- church  theology,  such  as  we  find  not  infrequently 
in  Canon  Liddon's  discourses.  In  fact  we  seem  to  catch 
the  note  of  the  broader  modern  theology  in  his  conceptions, 
for  example,  of  the  sacrificial  work  of  Christ.  In  it  he 
finds  a  disclosure  of  man's  sin,  the  revelation  of  God's 
love,  the  seal  of  his  ownership,  and  the  highest  motive  of 
our  obedience.'  The  sermon  that  deals  vdth  the  story  of 
Esau  furnishes  an  interesting  type  of  the  biographical 
discourse.  It  may  be  compared  with  the  sermon  by 
Professor  George  Adam  Smith  on  the  same  subject.  The 
latter  is  in  its  moral  impressiveness,  on  the  whole,  of  a 
higher  order,  but  in  the  former  there  are  individual 
suggestions  and  aspects  of  the  subject  that  are  of  great 
value  and  are  in  nowise  surpassed  by  the  latter. 

The  discourse  that  deals  with  the  Conqueror  from  Edom 
(Is.  Ixiii.  i)  and  has  for  its  subject  "The  Heroism  of 
Lonehness"  is  also  one  of  strong  impressiveness.  It 
lacks  the  felicity  of  suggestion  and  the  rhetorical  brilUancy 
of  Bishop  Brooks'  sermon  from  the  same  text,  but  in  moral 
strength  and  value  it  is  in  no  sort  inferior.     He  has  severe 

»  "  Cambridge  Sermons,"  Vol.  IV,  "  Bought  with  a  Price,"  291. 


THE   ANGLICAN   PULPIT  199 

words  for  those  theologians  who,  by  their  technical  terms 
obscure  the  great,  simple,  luminous  truths  and  facts  of 
redemptive  rehgion.  His  theology  is  practical  and  preach- 
able,  and  the  ethical  aim  of  his  preaching  is  always 
apparent.  Like  Canon  Mozley,  he  is  a  suggestive  preacher, 
because  he  so  frequently  directs  our  attention  to  what  is 
striking  in  the  paradoxes  and  seeming  contradictions  of 
religion.  The  discourses  are  short,  the  introductions  dis- 
proportionately long,  and  disclose  his  exegetical  habit.  They 
follow  the  essay  method,  so  common  with  AngUcan  preach- 
ers, but,  although  vidthout  salient  points  of  demarcation, 
they  have  a  progressive  movement,  which  is  altogether  free 
and  unconventional.  His  style  is  direct  and  unexpect- 
edly energetic.  The  short  sentence  is  characteristic,  the 
rhetorical  interrogative  abounds,  and  the  interrupted 
sentence  is  tributary  to  the  momentum  of  his  thought  and 
force  of  his  diction. 

During  the  last  generation  three  men  have  been  especially 
prominent  at  St.  Paul's.  Dean  Church  is  one  of  them, 
and  to  him  probably  more  than  to  any  other  man  is  due 
the  effectiveness  with  which  the  moral  and  rehgious 
forces  of  the  cathedral  have  been  organized.  The 
"Life  and  Letters,"  by  his  daughter,  in  which  is  incor- 
porated a  character  sketch  by  Canon  Scott  Holland, 
discloses  a  profoundly  interesting  man,  with  whom,  if 
time  permitted,  it  would  be  profitable  to  linger.  In  his 
spirit  of  reverence,  his  gravity  and  austerity,  his  moral 
sobriety,  his  profoundly  serious  view  of  hfe,  comparable 
in  all  this  with  Newnnan,  Mozley,^  and  Liddon,  in  which 
respect  also  he  reminds  us  of  Robertson,  he  was  a  typical 
high  churchman.  A  personal  friend  of  Newman's  and 
measurably  his  follower,  he  seemed  of  sufficient  significance 
to  become  his  successor  in  leadership  of  what  was  left 
of  the  Oxford  movement  after  Newman  left  the  church. 

>  For  the  writer's  analysis  of  Mozley's  preaching,  see  "  Representa- 
tive Modern  Preachers,"  Ch.  VII. 


200  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

But  he  had  not  the  full  equipment  for  such  leadership. 
Like  Mozley,  he  was  too  independent,  and  too  shy  and 
retiring,  and  he  was  much  more  human  than  most  high 
churchmen.  He  was  a  first-rate  classical  scholar,  a  student 
of  Dante,  whose  solemn  spirit  seemed  to  have  breathed 
itself  into  his  Hfe,  a  competent  authority  in  the  interpreta- 
tion of  the  great  poet,  being  familiar  with  the  Italian 
language  from  early  years.  He  was  a  historical  student, 
famihar  especially  with  the  mediaeval  period,  and  wrote 
a  life  of  Anselm.  He  was  a  student  of  the  natural  sciences, 
a  competent  botanist,  a  correspondent  of  Professor  Gray  of 
Harvard  College,  and  was  among  the  first  churchmen  to 
recognize  the  significance  and  value  of  Darwin's  "Origin 
of  Species."  It  was  academic  freedom  and  catholicity 
that  gave  him  touching  points  with  modem  thought  and 
Hfe,  and  this,  with  his  balance  of  judgment,  his  equity,  his 
firmness,  his  simplicity  and  genuineness,  and  his  humor, 
despite  his  shrinking  reserve,  fitted  him  eminently  for  such 
leadership  as  was  necessary  for  the  work  in  hand  at  St. 
Paul's.  Few  men,  it  is  said,  have  had  his  gift  for  inspiring 
confidence  in  those  whom  he  undertook  to  lead.  He  held 
the  unreserved  allegiance  of  all  his  colleagues,  and  was  the 
real  centre  of  official  hfe  at  St.  Paul's.  Dean  Holland 
evidently  finds  the  secret  of  this  skilful  but  hmited  leader- 
ship in  part  in  his  balance  of  judgment,  his  practical 
wisdom,  his  tolerance  and  cathohcity  of  spirit,  and  his 
large  outlook  into  the  future.  "  He  was  found,"  says  Dean 
Holland,*  "  at  each  crisis,  ready  to  verify  the  connection 
between  the  struggle  for  a  larger  doctrine  and  the  struggle 
for  a  richer  ritual.  Not  only  that,  but  when  this  stage  of 
the  conflict,  too,  was  passing,  and  the  position  had  been 
secured,  and  lawful  hberty  was  greater,  and,  in  consequence 
the  older  movement  was  turned  to  other  tasks,  and  took 
fresh  interests,  and  began  to  be  busy  with  the  problems 
of  contemporary  thought,  and  with  the  new  anxieties  of 
'  "  Life  and  Letters  of  Dean  Church,"  271,  372. 


THE   ANGLICAN   PULPIT  20I 

Biblical  criticism,  he  still  would  not  hold  himself  back  from 
those  who  had  moved  on  to  the  new  ground ;  but  justified 
the  necessity  for  the  advance,  perilous  though  it  seemed 
to  him;  and  not  only  corrected  and  guarded,  but  also 
appreciated  and  encouraged  the  effort  that  was  being 
made  to  assimilate  the  fresh  material  of  knowledge." 

The  writings  of  Dean  Church  are  numerous.  Among 
the  most  interesting  and  valuable  are  perhaps  his  work  on 
'Dante  and  his  work  on  the  Oxford  movement.  As 
a  preacher  he  had  nothing  of  the  popularity  of  Canon 
Liddon,  his  associate  at  the  cathedral.  But  his  words  were 
always  weighty,  and  he  commanded  the  interest  and  respect 
of  the  large  audiences  that  never  failed  him  whenever  he 
preached.  His  "Village  Sermons,"  preached  at  Whately, 
where  he  spent  nineteen  happy  and  successful  years, 
whose  influence  upon  him  is  made  apparent  in  a  letter 
to  Professor  Gray,^  just  before  he  left  reluctantly  to  assume 
his  new  duties  at  St.  Paul's,  doubtless  more  fully  than  all 
others  disclose  the  personally  attractive  qualities  of  the 
man.  The  "Cathedral  and  University  Sermons"  are 
more  elaborate  and  weighty.  Like  Canon  Liddon's, 
they  are  rather  long  and  are  carefully  wrought  out  with 
from  two  to  four  main  topics  definitely  marked  in  the 
printed  form,  but,  as  was  often  the  case  with  Liddon's 
sermons,  not  so  carefully  marked  in  the  process  of  deUvery 
by  notes  of  transition.  He  was  a  writer  of  simple,  chaste, 
clear,  dignified  Enghsh,  without  any  Hterary  mannerisms 
that  arrest  attention.  In  physical  personaHty  he  was 
slight  and  without  the  external  appointments  of  a  pulpit 
orator,  while  his  voice  was  defective  in  carrying  power. 
In  pulpit  manner  he  was  modest  and  unaggressive,  and 
the  power  of  his  preaching  was  due  to  the  weight  of  his 
thought,  the  elevation  of  his  character,  and  the  excellence 
of  his  hterary  culture. 

As    Dean    Goulbum    represents   the    religious   aspects 

1  "  Life  and  Letters,"  244. 


202  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

of  high  Anglicanism,  and  Bishop  Lightfoot  its  scholarship, 
so  Dean  Church  represents  its  effort  to  adjust  itself  to 
the  necessities  of  modern  life.  His  sermons  as  select 
preacher  at  St.  Mary's,  Oxford,  1866-1868,  which  deal 
in  various  ways  with  Christianity  in  its  relation  to  modern 
civiUzation,  reveal  the  breadth  and  sanity  of  his  mind. 
His  effort  to  secure  a  high  estimate  of  the  value  of  secular 
society  as  designed  to  further  the  ends  of  our  earthly 
existence  is  in  somewhat  striking  contrast  with  the  efforts 
of  the  leaders  of  the  Oxford  movement  in  undervaluing  it, 
and  one  suspects  a  purpose  on  the  part  of  the  preacher 
to  counterwork  this  tendency  of  high  churchmanship. 

To  Canon  Liddon  also,  who,  as  its  greatest  preacher, 
was  connected  with  the  cathedral  for  twenty  years,  there 
must  be  only  a  cursory  and  inadequate  reference.  He 
too  was  a  typical  high  churchman,  serious  in  his  views  of 
life,  austere  in  his  type  of  piety,  ascetic  in  aspect  as  a 
monk,  a  perpetuation  of  Newman  in  his  moral  earnestness 
and  dogmatic  intensity.  The  title  of  his  first  volume 
of  sermons,  "Some  Words  for  God,"  suggests  the  prophetic 
quahty  of  the  man  and  the  character  of  his  preaching.  He 
was  a  diUgent  student  of  modem  thought  and  modem 
life,  which  seemed  to  have  for  him  a  kind  of  fascination. 
But  it  was  the  fascination  of  objects  for  which  he  had 
an  intense  antagonism.  He  had  a  profound  distmst 
of  all  forms  of  HberaHsm.  He  was  a  stout  beUever  in 
the  dogmatic  principle,  was  aggressive  and  polemical,  and 
turned  all  his  learning,  which,  after  its  kind,  was  hberal, 
all  his  moral  intensity,  which  was  immense,  and  all  his 
eloquence,  which  surpassed  that  of  any  other  man  of  his 
day  in  his  own  school,  against  what  he  regarded,  and  in 
a  measure  with  good  reason,  as  the  errors  and  delusions 
of  the  modem  world.  In  substance  his  preaching  was 
apologetic,  and  his  training,  as  well  as  his  intellectual 
tendencies,  eminently  fitted  him  for  this  type  of  preaching. 
He  gloried  in  his  cathoUc  Anglicanism,  and  much  of  his 


THE   ANGLICAN   PULPIT  203 

preaching  finds  its  material,  if  not  its  formal  centre,  in 
the  realm  of  high-church  dogma.     In  all  this  he  shows  the 
skill  of    the  dialectician  as  well  as  of    the   rhetorician. 
But  in  the  aim  of  his  preaching  and  in  its  tone  he  is  domi- 
nantly  ethical,  and  bears  witness  that  with  him  doctrine 
is   of   supreme   moral   significance.     There   is   a   certain 
contagion  in  his  moral  earnestness   which  is,   in  large 
measure,  the  secret  of  his  influence  over  men.     He  has 
been  called  a  great  orator.     But  he  was  preacher  rather 
than  orator.     He  always  attracted  and  held  large  audi- 
ences, and  the  influence  of  St.  Paul's  during  his  day  was 
largely  due  to  his  power  over  the  cultivated  as  well  as  over 
the  general  pubhc.     He  was  for  many  years  not  only  a 
student  of  oratory  but  of  the  best  preaching  of  the  chief 
modern  nations,  —  German,  French,  Itahan,  Enghsh,  and 
American, — and  it  is  said  that  the  best  French  and  ItaUan 
models  influenced  his  own  preaching.     Like  most  of  the 
preachers  of  his  school,  he  was  topical  in  his  method, 
even  in  his  use  of  the  textual  development  and  in  his 
expository  preaching,  as  illustrated  by  his  Easter,  Advent, 
and  Christmas  discourses.     His  discussion  is  orderly  and 
cumulative,  rarely  faihng  of  the  oratorical  cUmax.     His 
style  is  characterized  by  intellectual  clearness  and  force, 
and    by  a   \'igorous    nervous   intensity  which    produced 
strong  rhetorical  effects.     It  was  incisive  and  impressive 
in  high  degree,  reaching  sometimes  the  heights  of  ecstasy 
and  ending  in  prayer.     His  sermons  were  generally  an 
hour  in  length,  but  they  held  his  audiences  with  such 
unabated  interest  that  they  seemed  reluctant  to  have  him 
close.     The    service    began    and    continued    under   high 
pressure,  after  the  impassioned  manner  of  Bishop  Brooks. 
But  this  rapidity,  resulting  in  indistinctness  of  articulation 
in  the  use  of  a  voice  that  was  in  itself  rich  and  flexible, 
and  the  short-sightedness  which  held  him  chained   close 
to  his  manuscript,  which,  however,  he  gradually  learned 
to  use  with  freedom,  did  not  seem  seriously  to  perplex  the 


204  *  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

crowds  that  pressed  to  the  cathedral  to  hear  him,  nor 
to  diminish  materially  the  effectiveness  of  his  preaching. 
Canon  Holland,  who  for  six  years  was  actively  associated 
with  Church  and  Liddon,  is  perhaps  the  most  "telHng 
and  eloquent"  preacher  connected  with  St.  Paul's  since 
Liddon's  death.  In  him,  too,  we  trace  very  distinctly 
the  spirit  of  the  Oxford  movement,  "the  spirit  of  the 
Christian  soldier  warring  for  the  right,"  as  he  conceives 
it,  the  spirit  of  "an  older  past,"  which  is  to  him  "as  an 
heroic  epic."  In  him  we  see  the  inspiration  of  Nevmian, 
whose  personality  exercised  "that  intimate  fascination 
which  was  so  pecuharly  his  own,"  and  the  strong  leader- 
ship of  Church,  whose  "memory  is  so  fragrant,  and  his 
name  so  full  of  good  cheer."  But  coming  later  into 
active  Ufe  he  discloses  also  the  influence  of  the  modern 
world.  In  1882,  twelve  years  after  his  graduation  at 
Oxford,  and  while  yet  tutor  of  Christ  Church,  he  pubHshed 
the  volume  entitled  "Logic  and  Life."  The  first  sermon 
gives  it  its  title,  and  suggests  the  living  connection  between 
logic  and  life,  i.e.  between  reason  and  impulse,  thought 
and  character,  intellectual  experience  and  all  other  elements 
of  experience.  In  the  changes  of  modern  Hfe  men's 
conception  of  reason  itself  has  changed.  It  is  not  "an 
engine  with  which  every  man  starts  equipped,  capable  of 
doing  a  certain  job,  whenever  required,  with  a  definite  and 
certain  mode  of  action,  but  it  is  taken  as  a  living  and  pliable 
process,  by  and  in  which  man  brings  himself  into  rational 
and  intelligent  relation  with  his  surroundings,  with  his 
experience."  "It  is  on  our  inner  and  actual  life  that  the 
action  of  our  reason  depends."  Reason  tells  us  nothing 
trustworthy  of  itself.  The  worth  of  what  it  tells  us  depends 
on  the  stock  of  the  total  experience  with  which  it  deals. 
In  a  word,  reason  has  for  its  subject-matter  the  sum  total 
of  our  experiences,  and  it  becomes  the  living  organ  of 
such  experiences.  In  the  sermon  entitled,  "The  Venture 
of  Reason,"  he  would  show  that  as  there  is  a  rational 


THE   ANGLICAN   PULPIT  205 

element  involved  in  all  our  human  impulses,  that,  as  from 
within,  it  regulates  and  controls  them  and  not  from  without 
and  in  entire  independence  of  them,  so  there  is  a  certain 
element  of  impulse  in  reason  itself,  and  this  inner  impulse 
of  reason  is  what  may  be  called  faith.  Faith  and  reason, 
therefore,  are  not  generically  different,  and  the  venture 
of  faith  in  which  it  commits  itself  to  the  facts  that  appeal 
to  it  is  nothing  other  than  the  venture  of  reason.  Faith, 
where  properly  exercised,  can  no  more  be  irrational  than 
reason,  and  cannot  issue  in  unbehef.  In  all  this,  with 
modifications,  we  seem  to  find  a  trace  of  Ne\\Tiian.  The 
entire  volume  is  an  advocacy  of  the  organic  connection 
between  thought  and  life.  The  value  of  doctrine  is  in 
its  practical  relation  to  life  and  in  what  it  does  for  life. 
In  this,  one  seems  to  find  a  very  decided  modification  of 
the  high-church  conception  of  loyalty  to  the  dogmas  of 
the  church,  which  might,  one  suspects,  lead  to  im.portant 
issues  in  modifying  the  conception  of  the  authority  of 
dogma.  This  principle  he  apphes  in  sermons  XIV  and  XV 
to  the  doctrines  of  the  Trinity  and  the  Incarnation,  The 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  as  held  by  the  church,  he  seems  to 
accept.  He  does  not  undertake,  however,  to  make  it 
real  or  to  vindicate  it,  or  give  it  meaning  by  speculative  or 
dialectical  processes,  but  rather  by  showing  its  influence 
upon  our  practical  life  in  meeting  our  actual  needs.  In 
discussing  the  Incarnation  he  would  show  us  that  the  hu- 
mihation  of  Christ  in  entering  our  humanity  is  only  a  dis- 
closure of  the  condescension  of  God  himself.  In  all  this 
the  dogmatic  and  ecclesiastical  note  seems,  in  the  formal 
sense,  at  least,  to  disappear.  We  have  here  the  effort  of  a 
high  churchman  to  show  the  working  value  in  practical 
life  of  the  dogmas  of  the  church  to  which  he  adheres. 
The  later  volume,  "Creed  and  Character,"  is  devoted  to 
the  same  general  interest.  It  discloses  a  greater  maturity 
of  thought  and  an  even  greater  affluence  of  rhetorical 
expression.     But  equally  with  the  earher  volume  it  justifies 


2C6  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

the  claim  that  might  be  made  for  him,  of  being  the  philo- 
sophical preacher  of  high  Anglicanism.  Mental  assent 
throughout  to  the  preacher's  contention  is  impossible, 
but  he  surely  succeeds  in  these  vigorous  discourses  in 
vindicating  the  claim  that  there  is  a  close  and  vital  relation 
between  Christian  dogmatics  and  Christian  ethics,  or 
between  the  Christian  moral  life  and  those  doctrinal 
conceptions  of  Christianity  that  lie  back  of  it. 

In  their  exuberance  of  diction  and  in  the  skill  with 
which  subtle  metaphysical  thoughts  are  represented  in 
descriptive  imagery,  these  sermons  remind  us,  in  a  sort, 
of  Schleiermacher's  "Discourses."  We  find  here  the 
high  churchman's  love  of  paradox  and  a  very  suggestive 
and  impressive  manner  of  presenting  it.  Canon  Holland 
is  a  topical  preacher  who  uses  his  texts  as  mere  headings, 
some  of  which  have  no  manifest  relation  to  the  subjects 
discussed,  which  are  not  referred  to  in  the  discussion,  and 
which  find  justification  only  in  some  occult  and  remotely 
refated  principle  of  association.  The  style  is  exceedingly 
graphic  and  in  its  rapidity  of  movement,  its  elegance,  its 
intensity  of  exclamation,  its  apostrophe  and  interrogation, 
passing  sometimes  into  the  ecstasy  of  prayer,  it  reminds 
us  strongly  of  Newman. 

ii.  Low  Anglicanism  in  its  modem  form  was,  as  we 
have  already  seen,  powerfully  quickened  by,  and  may 
almost  be  said  to  have  originated  in,  the  Wesleyan  revival 
of  the  eighteenth  century.  It  has  claimed  to  be  by 
preeminence  the  evangehcal  branch  of  the  church.  By 
this  is  meant  first  of  all  that  it  is  preeminently  the  supporter 
of  the  traditional  doctrines  of  Protestantism,  but  more 
specifically  that  it  rests  upon  those  great  central  truths 
of  redemptive  religion  that  become  matters  of  personal, 
subjective  experience.  It,  therefore,  lays  chief  accent 
upon  the  realities  of  the  inner  religious  life,  cherishing 
especially  an  emotional  type  of  piety,  and,  as  contrasted 
with    high    Anglicanism,    attaches    but    relatively    Httle 


THE   ANGLICAN   PULPIT  207 

importance  to  the  forms  of  religion.  It  does  not,  how- 
ever, accept  unconditionally  the  subjective  principle 
as  furnishing  an  adequate  basis  of  rehgious  authority 
or  a  sufficient  test  of  the  validity  of  what  claims  to  be 
religious  truth.  The  great  outstanding  truths  and  facts 
of  Protestant  Christianity  have  been  given  by  an  objective, 
authoritative  revelation,  and  are  fixed  in  Scriptures 
that  have  been  given  by  an  infallible  inspiration.  They 
are,  therefore,  to  be  accepted  and  tested,  not  wholly  or 
primarily  by  personal  experiment,  but  by  the  objective 
authority  that  gave  them.  The  objective  principle  thus 
supplements  the  subjective.  The  dogmatic  principle, 
which,  in  its  fundamental  conception,  is  allegiance  to 
external  authority,  modifies  the  experimental  principle. 
The  typical  evangeUcal,  therefore,  while  at  heart  a  pietist, 
cherishing  with  an  inner  sense  of  sacredness  the  truths 
that  have  entered  into  his  rehgious  experience,  is  also  in 
creed  a  dogmatist  and  presses  home  the  truth  with  a  tone 
of  assurance  that  rests  upon  an  external  basis  of  authority. 
It  is  possibly  an  unadjusted  or  ill-adjusted  combination  of 
the  dogmatic  and  the  pietistic  spirit  that  in  part  accounts 
for  some  of  the  pecuharities  of  the  evangehcal  type  of 
Christian  Hfe.  There  is  in  it  a  certain  emotional  intensity 
and  conscientious  scrupulosity  in  some  of  its  representa- 
tives, and,  as  has  been  charged,  and  justly,  a  certain  narrow- 
ness, bigotry,  and  intolerance,  not  to  say  uncharitableness 
and  censoriousness.  It  is  also  perhaps  this  ill  adjustment 
that  accounts  for  the  ascetic  form  which  evangehcal  piety 
assumes.  For  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  extreme  forms  of 
the  legal  principle  can  be  successfully  combined  and 
worked  with  the  evangehcal  principle.  It  was  under  this 
type  of  evangehcal  influence  that  Robertson  hved  during 
the  early  part  of  his  ministry.  It  is  this  that  accounts 
for  the  evangehcal's  austere  views  of  human  hfe.  But 
no  one  can  fail  to  see  the  immense  power  for  good  that 
has  been  exerted  by  this  school.     No  branch  of  the  church 


2o8  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

has  surpassed  it  in  missionar}'  zeal,  or  exceeded  it  in 
practical  activity  in  the  care  of  souls.  It  is  also  evident 
that  under  the  influences  of  our  day  it  is  broadening  and 
deepening  and  becoming  more  genuinely  catholic  in  spirit, 
so  that  the  hne  between  the  low  and  broad  churchman  is 
not  so  easily  traced  as  once.  But  more  specifically  and  to 
the  point  in  hand,  somehow  the  culture  of  evangelicalism 
has  been  promotive  of  great  fervor,  directness,  and  facihty 
in  the  work  of  preaching.  The  preacher's  pietistic  spirit, 
his  zeal  for  individual  souls,  his  missionary  and  philan- 
thropic enthusiasm,  the  like  of  which  have  been  found 
in  such  large  measure  in  the  evangehcal  branch  of  the 
American  Episcopal  church,  even  the  distinctive  peculiar- 
ities of  his  evangehcal  theology  perhaps,  the  accent  laid 
upon  personal  sin  and  personal  redemption,  the  reahstic 
conceptions  and  representations  of  the  saving  significance 
of  the  suffering  Christ,  —  all  this  may,  in  considerable 
measure,  account  for  his  power  as  a  preacher.  Exeter 
Hall  has  been  a  centre  for  evangehcahsm,  and  its  influence 
has  made  itself  felt  in  all  branches  of  the  church.  The 
number  of  effective  preachers  afiihated  with  this  school 
has  been  and  still  is,  large.  Only  a  few  of  them  can  be 
mentioned.  Bickersteth,  Bishop  of  Ripon,  and  Henry 
Melville,  who  was  at  one  time  connected  with  St.  Paul's, 
both  graduates  of  Cambridge  University,  which  has  been 
closely  allied  with  the  evangelical  and  liberal  schools, 
will  be  recalled  and  gratefully  remembered  by  the  students 
of  Anghcan  preaching  thirty  or  forty  years  ago  as  influen- 
tially  impressive  preachers  of  this  school. 

Ryle,  Bishop,  of  Liverpool,  will  also  be  remembered, 
not  only  as  an  ardent  evangehcal  preacher,  but  as  a  pro- 
hfic  writer  of  religious  tracts  of  characteristic  evangelical 
spirit,  contributor  to  religious  periodicals,  and  an  enthusi- 
astic and  courageous  defender  of  evangehcal  principles 
as  represented  by  Puritan  and  Wesleyan  dissent.  He 
was  one  of  the  best-known  preachers  at  Exeter  Hall  in 


THE   ANGLICAN   PULPIT  209 

courses  of  evangelistic  sermons  to  the  workingmen  of 
London,  and  one  of  the  most  gifted  in  this  type  of  preach- 
ing. Some  of  these  sermons  have  been  preserved,  and 
they  disclose  the  same  general  characteristics  that  one 
finds  in  the  evangelistic  preaching  of  the  nonconforming 
churches  of  that  period.  He  was  a  great  admirer  of  Baxter 
and  defended  him  vigorously  against  the  criticisms  of 
some  of  his  AngHcan  brethren.  In  1869  he  pubhshed 
"The  Christian  Leaders  of  the  Last  Century^  or  England 
a  Hundred  Years  Ago,"  in  the  preface  to  which  he  says: 
"I  confess  it,  I  am  a  thorough  enthusiast  about  them." 
His  preaching  was  prevaihngly  textual,  a  characteristic 
of  his  school,  and  it  was  earnest  in  tone,  direct  in  method, 
and  popular  in  style. 

Archibald  Boyd,  Dean  of  Exeter,  was  one  of  the  most 
accomplished  of  the  evangeUcal  preachers  of  his  day. 
Robertson  was  his  curate  at  Christ  Church,  Cheltenham, 
during  his  ministry  of  five  years  there.  His  influence  as 
a  preacher  upon  Robertson  was,  as  we  learn  from  various 
sources,  very  strong.  He  listened  to  his  rector,  it  is  said, 
"with  a  kind  of  admiring  despair."  But  admiration  for 
the  rector's  accomplishments,  whose  measure  he  was 
hopeless  of  reaching,  stimulated  him  most  vigorously  in  his 
own  efforts,  and  it  was  one  of  the  influences  that  led  him 
to  a  standard  of  excellence  that  assured  his  ultimate  ex- 
traordinary success  as  a  preacher.  Dean  Boyd,  if  for  no 
other  reason  than  his  once  close  relation  with  Robertson, 
could  not  fail  to  be  an  object  of  interest.  But  in  addition 
to  all  this,  although  he  has  left  but  little  that  enables  us 
to  judge  of  his  power  as  a  preacher,  he  has  left  in  Chelten- 
ham and  elsewhere  the  tradition  of  great  accomplish- 
ments. In  London  and  Exeter  he  commanded  the  interest 
of  the  most  cultivated  classes,  and  has  been  widely  known 
as  one  of  the  most  thoughtful,  and,  after  a  sort,  most  learned 
theologically  of  the  religious  teachers  of  his  school. 

Dean  Boyd  was  evidently  of  Irish  lineage,  and  although 


210  THE    MODERN    PULPIT 

one  finds  in  his  discourses  nothing  that  suggests  the 
brilUancy  of  the  Irish  rhetorician,  one  imagines  that  there 
may  have  been  in  the  dehvery  of  his  discourses  something 
of  the  impressiveness  of  the  Irish  orator.  He  had  the 
impulse  and  the  equipment  of  the  theological  contro- 
versiaUst,  and  he  defended  the  truths  of  Christianity  as 
he  understood  them  with  vigor,  but  with  dehberateness 
and  fairness  withal.  That  he  was  not  the  theological 
antagonist  of  his  early  Cheltenham  curate  would  indicate 
either  the  closeness  of  his  friendly  personal  relations  with 
Robertson,  or  that  Robertson  himself  was  at  that  time 
on  substantially  evangelical  ground.  A  dozen  or  fifteen 
years  after  Robertson's  death,  however,  he  appears  before 
the  pubhc  as  the  antagonist  of  the  subjective  principle 
for  which  Robertson  stood.  He  defends  revelation,^  as 
against  moral  intuition  or  speculative  reason,  as  furnish- 
ing in  its  miracles  and  in  its  prophecy  the  only  adequate 
criterion  of  truth,  a  sort  of  teaching  which  Robertson 
denounced  at  Brighton  as  the  "rankest  rationahsm." 

Dr.  Magee,  Bishop  of  Peterborough,  and  subsequently 
Archbishop  of  York,  was  in  his  day  the  most  brilUant  and 
popular  pulpit  orator  not  only  of  the  evangehcal  school, 
but  of  the  entire  AngUcan  church.  Canon  Liddon  may 
have  been  the  greater  preacher  in  the  comprehensive  sense 
of  the  term,  but  the  bishop  was  the  greater  pulpit  orator, 
and  Liddon  himself  regarded  him  as  the  greatest  of  living 
preachers.  Like  Wilberforce,  he  was  equally  at  home  in 
the  pulpit,  on  the  platform,  or  in  parhament,  at  home  in 
the  briefer  or  in  the  longer  address,  and  before  a  cultivated 
or  an  uninstructed  audience.  He  was,  in  fact,  esdmated 
as  second  only  to  Gladstone  or  Bright  among  EngHsh 
orators.  He  was  of  Irish  origin,  and  in  his  oratory  he 
disclosed  the  wit,  the  pathos,  the  fire,  the  fertihty,  and  the 
manlv  strength  as  well,  that  are  characteristic  of  the  best 
type  of  Celtic  genius.  The  clearness  and  accuracy  of  his 
diction,  as  in  the  case  of  Wendell  Phillips  and  of  John 


THE   ANGLICAN   PULPIT  211 

Bright,  were  the  product  of  careful  training  in  early  years, 
but  the  diction  had  also  the  sparkle,  the  spontaneity,  and 
the  affluence  of  the  strictly  extemporaneous  speaker. 
This  is  especially  true  of  his  speeches  and  of  his  free, 
offhand  addresses.  In  his  sermons  one  finds  nothing  that 
is  particularly  striking  or  fresh  in  thought.  The  order  is 
always  clear,  the  method  of  discussion  somewhat  elaborate, 
and  the  thought  and  the  diction  expanded  after  the  man- 
ner of  the  extemporaneous  speaker.  They,  therefore,  leave 
no  adequate  impression  of  his  brilhant  oratorical  quahties. 
His  speeches,  although  always  carefully  wrought  out,  even 
to  the  striking  peroration  which  is  the  dehght  of  the  Irish 
orator,  were  dependent  for  their  effectiveness  to  a  large 
extent  upon  the  freedom  and  the  momentary  inspiration 
of  the  extemporaneous  method.  He  was  a  vigorous 
opponent  of  the  essay  type  of  preaching  so  common  in  the 
Anglican  church,  knowing  as  by  oratorical  instinct  that 
it  is  only  the  discourse  that  is  thro\\Ti  into  the  form  of  an 
address  that  can  be  oratorically  effective.  He  gives  us 
his  conception  of  what  preaching  should  be  in  two  lectures 
dehvered  before  the  London  Homiletical  Society  at  St. 
Paul's,  entitled  "The  Art  of  Preaching"  and  "Extempo- 
raneous Preaching."  With  the  habit  of  the  orator  and 
debater  he  insisted  that  the  preacher  should  put  his 
"points"  definitely  and  thrust  them  forth  sahently  into 
recognition.  He  put  supreme  stress  upon  logical  con- 
tinuity and  clear  arrangement  of  thought.  For  Demosthe- 
nes' word  "action"  he  would  substitute  the  reiteration  of 
the  word  "arrangement,"  as  suggesting  the  supreme 
interest  in  effective  preaching.  The  preacher  must,  first 
of  all,  master  the  minds  of  his  hearers.  To  this  end  it  is 
necessary  that  he  master  his  subject  and  be  able  to  throw 
it  into  fresh  light.  The  sermon  should  have  but  one  lead- 
ing thought,  which  should  rally  everything  about  it  as  a 
centre,  and  all  the  topics  should  be  but  illustrative  phases 
of  this  one  idea.     He  gave  two  years,  he  tells  us,  to  hard 


212  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

study  of  the  problem  of  so  shaping  the  material  as  to 
realize  the  conditions  of  forceful  address,  knowing  well 
that  the  public  speaker  who  leaves  that  problem  to  take 
care  of  itself  will  come  to  grief.  He  would  counsel  preach- 
ers first  of  all  to  sketch  the  outlines  of  their  sermons,  and 
then  read  everything  bearing  on  the  subject  in  hand  that 
they  can  get  hold  of.  "If  you  want  to  succeed,"  he  says, 
"never  read  sermons,  but  study  arrangement  and  effect."  ^ 

Dr.  Magee  was  a  vigorous,  although  kindly  and  tem- 
perate, defender  of  the  evangeUcal  type  of  Christian  faith, 
as  against  the  innovations  of  modern  unbelief,  and  was 
evidently  more  interested  in  theological  than  in  ethical 
questions. 

One  queries  whether  he  devoted  his  great  influence  and 
power  as  a  pubhc  speaker  to  the  cause  of  moral  reform  as 
he  might  have  done. 

In  the  Rev.  Dr.  WilUam  Boyd  Carpenter,  Bishop  of 
Ripon,  we  find  a  representative  of  the  evangehcal  school 
who  shares  the  liberal  and  progressive  spirit  of  the  broad 
churchman.  Those  who  are  famihar  with  the  httle  vol- 
ume entitled  "The  Witness  of  the  Heart  to  Christ," 
Hulsean  Lectures  for  1878,  preached  by  him  before  the 
University  of  Cambridge,  will  recognize  here  an  unusually 
broad  type  of  evangehcalism.  His  humanistic  culture  and 
his  vigorous  faith  in  the  subjective  principle  as  related  to 
Christian  apologetics  give  great  weight  and  dignity  to  the 
genuine  conservative  spirit  with  which  he  would  defend 
the  claims  of  Christianity  upon  the  allegiance  of  men.  In 
"The  Permanent  Elements  of  ReHgion,"  Bampton  Lec- 
tures for  1887,  by  which  he  has  become  most  widely  known 
beyond  his  own  communion,  we  recognize  still  more  fully 
the  comprehensiveness  of  the  liberal  scholar  and  the 
cathoKcity  of  the  progressive  theologian,  combined  with 
that  loyalty  to  the  spirit  and  genius  of  Christianity  which 
may  be  called  characteristic  of  those  who  have  appro- 

1  MacDonnell's  "Life  of  Archbishop  Magce,"  Vol.  I,  31  ff. 


THE   ANGLICAN   PULPIT  213 

priated  what  is  best  in  the  nurture  of    the  evangeHcal 
school      His  recognition  of  the  principle  of  progress  as  one 
of  the  elements  essential  to  the  permanence  of  rehgion  is 
a  worthy  manifestation  of  this  combination  of  the  hberal 
and  evangeHcal  spirit.     In  a  very  f  ^^e'.  ^^SSf  t^^'^' f,^^ 
interesting  discourse  preached  at  Oxford  m  1884,  entitled 
"  The  Age  of  Progress, " '  he  discloses  the  same  harmonious 
blending  of  the  conservative  and  progressive  spirit.     It  is 
a  vmdication  of  the  spirit  of  progress  as  essential  to  the 
true  prophetic  spirit.     It  is  based  upon  2  Kmgs    vi.  1-2, 
in  which  the  sons  of  the  prophets  are  represented  as  sug- 
gesting to  EHsha  the  Umitations  of  their  present  dwelhng 
place,  and  as  petitioning  that  they  may  go  to  the  nver 
Jordan  and  take,  each  man  of  them  for  himself,  a  stick  ot 
timber  wherewith  to  build  a  new  abidmg  place  for  their 
school      The  progressive  spirit  by  which  a  man  is  enabled 
to  adjust  himself  and  his  teaching  to  his  own  age  is  just 
as  essential  to  the  true  prophetic  spirit  as  rehgious  msight 
and  moral  force.     Elisha  possessed  all  of  these  elements 
They  are  necessary  to  any  rehgious  leader  who  would  exert 
the    most    salutary   influence   upon   his   age      FoUowing 
somewhat  closelv  and  always  interestingly  and  suggestively 
the  imagery  furnished  by  the  text,  the  discourse  is  a  vin- 
dication, of  a  wise  and  discriminatmg  sort,  of  the  pro- 
gressive principle  in  rehgion  and  theology.  ^  We  must  get 
beyond  the  narrow  Umitations  of  our  provmciahsm      We 
must  work  cooperatively,  indeed,  but  each  man  and  each 
school  building  like  those  sons  of  the  prophets,  must  fur- 
nish material  for  a  new  and  better  theological  structure. 
His  statement  of  the  principles  contamed  m  the  movements 
of  low,  high,  and  broad  AngUcanism,  those     three  great 
movements  that  have    spread,  as  it^  were,   a  wealth  of 
rehgious  hght  over  the  past  century,"  is  altogether  discnm- 
,SX  and  feUcitous  and  illustrates  his  intellectual  com- 
Peh^nsiveness  and  rehgious  catholicity.     The  low  church- 
i"Tbe  Anglican  Pulpit  of  To-day,"  Sermon  XV,  187. 


214  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

man  would  lay  stress  upon  the  sacredness  of  the  individual 
soul  and  life,  and  upon  the  necessity  of  immediate  personal 
fellowship  and  communion  with  God.  The  high  church- 
man would  accentuate  the  sacredness  of  the  corporate  Hfe 
of  the  church  and  the  power  therein  of  the  li^dng  Lord 
Christ.  The  broad  churchman  would  teach  the  sacred- 
ness of  humanity  and  the  ever  abiding  presence  of  God  in 
the  human  race.  The  one  would  fix  our  attention  upon 
the  Holy  Spirit  as  an  indwelling  presence  in  the  Christian 
soul.  The  other  would  rally  our  faith  in  the  Holy  Catho- 
lic church  as  the  living  organ  of  Christ.  The  third  would 
broaden  our  apprehension  of  and  intensify  our  confidence 
in  the  presence  of  God  in  humanity  as  the  Father  of  spirits. 
All  these  points  of  view,  broadly,  intelligently,  spiritually 
apprehended  and  interpreted,  are  of  importance  in  the 
progress  of  theology,  rehgion,  and  church  life. 

Bishop  Carpenter  is  said  to  be  an  extemporaneous 
preacher,  and  one  can  readily  believe  him  to  be  a  preacher 
of  popular  impressiveness  and  of  wide-reaching  influence. 
His  work  on  homiletics  reveals  his  knowledge  of  the 
technique  of  the  subject.  A  volume  of  his  discourses  en- 
titled "The  Great  Charter  of  Christ,  Studies  in  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount,"  furnishes  one  of  the  best  illustrations  of 
effective  expository  preaching  within  the  writer's  knowl- 
edge. In  its  method  it  is  quite  unique,  and  illustrates 
anew  the  wide-ranging  possibilities  of  expository  preach- 
ing. The  central  thought  of  each  passage  is  pitched  upon, 
is  felicitously  suggested  in  the  title  of  each  discourse, 
and  this  central  thought  gathers  the  entire  material  of  the 
discourse  about  itself,  thus  securing  strict  unity  of  thought. 
All  relatively  unimportant  material  is  thus  ruled  out,  and 
only  what  is  of  chief  doctrinal  or  practical  interest  is  brought 
to  our  attention.  The  textual  basis  for  the  different  dis- 
courses exhibits  much  variety,  but  the  basis  is  always 
appropriate  and  pertinent.  The  preface  is  in  the  form 
of  an  allegory,  excellently  well  conceived  and  executed, 


THE    ANGLICAN    PULPIT  215 

and  is  made  to  suggest  the  regnant  principles  of  the  Ser- 
mon on  the  Mount.  The  literary  style  of  the  discourses 
is  in  all  ways  appropriate  to  their  quality  and  object. 

iii.  The  broad  church  school  has  more  numerous  touch- 
ing points  with  modem  Ufe  than  any  other  branch  of  the 
church,  and  its  representatives  are  probably  more  widelv 
kno\^T^  in  other  reUgious  communions.  It  is  a  product  of 
modem  liberahsm,  and  has  been  furthered  especially  by 
those  philosophical,  scientific,  critical,  and  literary  influ- 
ences that  came  into  prominence  at  the  beginning  of  the 
last  century,  and  to  which  reference  has  already  been 
made.  It  has  more  fully  appropriated  the  subjective 
principle  in  religion  than  any  other  school.  It  seeks  what 
is  human  and  imiversal  in  Christianity  and  finds  its  chief 
vindication  in  the  response  it  meets  in  human  nature.  Its 
theology  centres  itself  in  the  fatherly  character,  relation, 
and  government  of  God.  Its  church  is  the  church  of 
idealized  humanity,  and  its  ethical  spirit,  which  is  one  of 
its  chief  characteristics,  reaches  out  wddely  into  all  realms 
of  human  life.  It  has  produced  no  preacher  that  is  com- 
parable with  Robertson,  and  it  may  be  questioned  whether, 
with  all  its  intellectual  enterprise,  its  literary  culture,  its 
catholicity  of  spirit,  and  its  "enthusiasm  of  humanity,"  its 
pulpit  is  in  spiritual  impressiveness  equal  to  that  of  high 
or  low  AngUcanism  in  its  best  estate.  And  yet  it  must  be 
acknowledged  that  no  body  of  Anglican  teachers  has  been 
more  v^idely  influential. 

Archbishop  Whately,  its  earliest  modem  representative, 
was  more  of  a  logician,  debater,  teacher,  and  man  of  affairs 
than  preacher,  and  has  left  nothing  behind  that  is  eviden- 
tial of  eminent  pulpit  power  or  of  any  adequate  conception 
of  the  sources  of  popular  effectiveness  in  preaching.  His 
common  sense  and  his  ethical  spirit  are  manifest  in  the 
criticism  of  some  of  the  preachers  of  his  day.  But  in  his 
conception  of  pubHc  speech,  his  interest  is  prevailingly 
didactic  rather  than  ethical.     His  work  on  rhetoric,  which 


2l6  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

was  once  used  very  extensively  in  colleges  and  preparatory 
schools,  is  of  more  value  as  a  guide  in  reasoning  and  teach- 
ing than  in  the  work  of  the  advocate  or  the  work  of  per- 
suasion. But  he  was  a  man  of  effective  leadership  in  the 
Hberalism  of  his  school,  and  influenced  the  mental  Hfe  of 
prominent  men  in  all  schools. 

Bishop  Thirlwall,  in  all  his  impulses  and  sympathies 
as  well  as  judgments  a  typical  broad  churchman,  a  man 
of  high  scholarship  and  extensive  learning,  and  of  a  genu- 
ineness and  manliness  of  character  such  as  is  not  always 
found  in  those  who  are  brought  under  the  influences  of 
official  life  in  the  Anglican  bishopric,  was  in  his  day  one  of 
the  weightiest  preachers  of  his  school,  comparable  with 
Robertson  in  dignity  and  strength  of  thought,  but  not  in 
brilKancy  and  popular  effectiveness.  In  intellectual  thor- 
oughness and  in  practical  wisdom  his  discourses  to  his 
clergy  remind  us  of  the  preachers  of  an  earher  period. 

Augustus  WiUiam  Hare,  a  man  of  rare  culture  and  devout 
spirit,  who  with  his  younger  brother,  JuHus  Charles,  is 
known  as  the  author  of  "Guesses  at  Truth,"  which  has 
been  widely  read  and  much  admired  for  its  subtle  and  sug- 
gestive thought  and  vigorous  as  well  as  elegant  diction, 
was  known  as  a  model  English  country  clergyman,  and 
has  left  behind  a  volume  of  sermons  preached  to  his  rural 
congregation  at  Alton  Barnes,  entitled  "Sermons  to  a 
Country  Congregation,"  which  for  broad-mindedness, 
pastoral  afi"ectionateness,  devout  godliness,  practical  wis- 
dom, and  for  simphcity  and  directness  of  style  are  of 
permanent  interest. 

Julius  Charles  Hare  was,  in  his  knowledge  of  German 
theology  and  literature,  the  most  accomphshed  broad 
churchman  of  his  day.  His  residence  during  his  early 
years  in  Germany  opened  the  door  to  an  ultimate  famihar 
acquaintance  with  the  chief  theologians  of  the  mediating 
school  in  theology,  and  with  the  chief  poets  of  the  roman- 
tic school  in  literature.     His  friendship  with  Baron  Bun- 


THE   ANGLICAN   PULPIT  21 7 

sen,  the  Prussian  ambassador  to  England,  was  still  further 
tributary  to  this  opening  of  a  new  world  of  thought.  He 
was  the  friend  and  follower  of  Coleridge,  and  an  mterpreter 
of  his  spiritual  philosophy,  school-fellow  of  Grote  and 
Thirlwall,  becoming  ultimately  with  the  latter  joint 
translator  of  Niebuhr's  "History  of  Rome."  He  was  an 
intimate  friend  of  Dr.  Arnold's,  a  clerical  associate  of  John 
Sterling's,  who  was  at  one  time  his  curate  and  who,  with 
Trench  in  earher  years,  was  his  pupil  at  Trinity  College, 
Cambridge,  and  he  was  a  brother-in-law  of  Maurice.  He 
is  known  in  a  volume  of  discourses  preached  at  Cambridge, 
of  exceptional  thoughtfulness  and  spiritual  power,  entitled 
"The  Victory  of  Faith,"  but  still  more  widely  known  per- 
haps by  the  volume  of  more  elaborate  discourses  that 
bears  as  its  title  "The  Mission  of  the  Comforter,"  which 
has  been  a  sort  of  religious  classic  to  many  men  of  a  past 
generation.  It  is,  however,  of  additional,  and  was  once 
of  almost  unique  interest,  as  illustrating  in  its  appendix  his 
extensive  and  accurate  acquaintance  with  German  theo- 
logical scholarship  and  as  containing  a  skilful  defence  of 
some  of  the  teachings  of  his  school. 

Dr.  Thomas  Arnold,  the  manHest,  most  honest,  and 
most  serious  of  EngHsh  Christian  gentlemen,  in  his  Rugby 
sermons  manifests  in  a  very  interesting  manner  his  soUd 
sense,  his  pedagogic  wisdom,  his  religious  devoutness,  his 
ethical  directness,  and  his  soUcitude  for  the  moral  and 
religious  welfare  of  his  pupils,  and  they  are  in  fact  in 
many  ways  strongly  tributary  to  his  reputation  as  the 
great  English  educator. 

Maurice,  the  theologian  of  broad  Anglicanism,  and  its 
supremely  beloved  and  admired  intellectual  leader,  was 
too  subtle  and  metaphysical  in  his  tendencies  for  a  preacher. 
He  never  wholly  emancipated  himself  from  a  certain  in- 
tellectual vagueness,  or  mystical  or  metaphysical  indeter- 
minateness,  which  was  interesting  to  those  only  who  were 
in  intellectual  sympathy  with  him,  and  were  willing  to 


2i8  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

follow  him  in  his  mental  meanderings.  He  took  some- 
thing of  this,  with  a  certain  diffuseness  or  expansiveness 
of  style,  into  the  pulpit,  and  was  therefore  not  an  effective 
preacher.  But  his  discourses  on  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
preached  at  Lincoln's  Lin,  are  exceptionally  clear  in  out- 
line, definite  and  edifying  in  thought,  practical  in  aim,  and 
sufficiently  simple  and  perspicuous  in  diction. 

Charles  Kingsley,  the  "Giant  Great  Heart"  of  his 
school,  the  most  human  and  lovable  of  men,  had  but  few 
of  the  gifts  and  appointments  of  a  preacher.  The  pulpit 
was  not  the  sphere  for  his  genius.  The  humanity  of  the 
man  and  the  manliness  and  sincerity  of  his  literary  style 
are  notable  quahties  in  his  preaching,  and  there  is  but 
little  else.  In  the  volume  entitled  "The  Good  News  of 
God"  we  discern  the  same  large- heartedness,  the  same 
mental  freedom  and  facihty,  and  the  same  manly  straight- 
forwardness that  we  find  in  all  his  writings.  The  themes 
and  the  methods  of  discussion  bear  the  marks  of  the  broad 
churchman,  but  in  weight  of  thought  and  in  hterary 
skill  make  no  contribution  whatever  to  homiletic  hterature. 

Dean  Stanley,  in  all  of  his  discourses,  reveals  the  broad 
humanity  and  the  refined  hterary  culture  that  characterize 
all  his  intellectual  products.  Lacking  in  many  of  the  chief 
quahties  of  popular  impressiveness  and  without  the  sup- 
port of  the  personahty  of  the  preacher,  they  may  be  read 
with  quite  as  much  interest  as  they  were  heard.  The 
"Westminster  Sermons,"  preached  on  special  occasions  at 
Westminster  Abbey,  derive  their  chief  interest  from  the 
attractiveness  of  their  subject-matter,  their  clearness  of 
outline  and  graceful  diction,  and  from  their  disclosure  of 
the  preacher's  wide-ranging  human  interests  and  his 
extensive  historical  knowledge.  The  "Addresses  and 
Sermons"  deUvered  at  St.  Andrews,  Scotland,  are  more 
elaborate  and  theological  in  character,  revealing  as  ever 
the  preacher's  intellectual  and  ecclesiastical  cathoUcity, 
but  lacking  somewhat  his  usual  dehcacy  of  hterary  touch. 


THE   ANGLICAN   PULPIT  219 

The  "Sermons  in  the  East,"  preached  before  the  Prince 
of  Wales  in  the  spring  of  1862,  are  notable  as  making  still 
more  clearly  manifest  his  interest  in  and  knowledge  of 
sacred  geography  as  well  as  history,  and  although  very 
short,  they  are  marked  by  clearness  of  outline  and  by  skill 
and  helpfulness  in  practical  suggestion. 

Bishop  Fraser  of  Manchester  was  known  in  his  day  as 
a  very  active,  aggressive  advocate  of  practical  Christianity. 
He  was  devoted  to  the  interests  of  the  common  people,  an 
earnest  advocate  especially  of  their  education.  He  lived 
a  modest,  frugal  life,  mindful  of  the  poor  and  beloved  of 
them,  and  he  led  his  clergy,  by  precept  as  well  as  by  ex- 
ample, to  a  like  devotion.  As  being  a  man  of  affairs  he  was 
not  particularly  distinguished  as  a  preacher.  His  university 
sermons  give  evidence  of  this  practical,  aggressive  character. 
They  are  frank,  free,  forthputting,  straightforward,  sen- 
sible utterances,  dealing,  like  the  discourses  of  Canon  Lid- 
don,  but  more  sympathetically  and  less  polemically,  with 
living  questions  of  the  day.  He  was  as  Hberal  in  pohtics 
as  in  theology,  and  perhaps  more  so,  and  was  a  Uvely 
advocate  of  whatever  seemed  to  him  to  further  the  edu- 
cational, social,  poUtical,  and  material  interests  of  the 
people. 

Bishop  Temple  of  Exeter,  subsequently  of  London,  and 
ultimately  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  was  a  thinker, 
scholar,  and  educator,  and  not  especially  distinguished  as 
a  preacher.  "The  Education  of  the  World,"  an  article 
in  the  once  famous  "Essays  and  Reviews,"  which  brought 
him  into  prominence  and  with  singular  injustice  subjected 
him  to  much  adverse  criticism,  exhibits  his  leading  intel- 
lectual tendencies  and  alHes  him,  although  somewhat 
remotely,  save  by  association,  with  broad  AngKcanism. 
He  had  a  vigorous,  steady  grip  upon  any  subject  he 
touched.  His  Bampton  Lectures  for  1884  on  the  "Rela- 
tion of  Religion  and  Science,"  are  of  value  for  their  clear 
insight  into  the  basis  upon  which  the  claims  of  both  reli- 


220  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

gion  and  science  rest,  but,  like  most  efforts  in  this  line, 
throw  but  little  Ught  upon  their  working  relations.  He 
was  of  a  cautious  and  reasonably,  conservative  tempera- 
ment, more  liberal  perhaps  in  spirit  than  in  doctrine,  and 
after  his  elevation  to  positions  of  high  trust  in  the  church, 
manifested  something  of  the  institutional  moderation  that 
characterizes  the  very  prudent  and  highly  respectable 
AngUcan  official.  For  eleven  years  he  was  Arnold's 
successor  as  head  master  at  Rugby.  Not  unUke  Arnold 
in  his  fundamental  ethical  qualities,  he  perpetuated  some- 
thing of  his  success  as  head  master.  Three  series  of  his 
Rugby  sermons  have  been  pubhshed,  which  are  notable 
chiefly  for  dignity,  strength,  and  clearness  of  thought.  He 
was  accustomed  to  bring  his  assistant  masters  and  student 
readers  into  participation  in  the  conduct  of  the  Sunday 
morning  chapel  service  and  at  the  afternoon  service  he 
preached.  The  ethical  substance  and  aim  of  his  discourses 
were  prominent.  A  few  months  before  his  transfer  to  the 
bishopric  of  Exeter,  he  preached  a  series  of  sermons  on 
the  mysteries  of  religion,  which  one  wishes  might  have 
found  a  place  in  the  third  series  of  the  Rugby  discourses. 
It  was  his  aim  to  show  that  our  moral  and  spiritual  natures 
find  a  satisfactory  way  of  interpreting  most  of  these  mys- 
teries. In  a  discourse  upon  the  "Divine  Goodness,"  to 
which  the  writer  listened  about  two  months  before  his 
transfer  from  Rugby,  he  raised  the  question  whether,  apart 
from  external  revelation,  it  is  possible  to  vindicate  the  good- 
ness of  God,  but  the  substance  and  the  conclusion  of  the 
contention  were  that  what  is  best  even  in  our  unaided  moral 
and  rehgious  natures  is  able  to  rise  above  all  doubt  and  to 
justify  it.  The  discourse  was  not  so  simple  in  thought  and 
diction  and  so  well  adapted  to  his  audience  as  one  might 
have  expected,  but  it  was  strongly  put  and  it  held  attention. 
His  voice  was  strong,  and  but  for  the  cadence  which  is 
habitual  with  AngUcan  preachers  of  all  schools,  impressive. 
In  the  entire  service  there  was  the  evidence  of  a  most  agree- 


THE   ANGLICAN   PULPIT  221 

able,  sincere,  substantial,  and  manly  man,  and  of  a  man- 
hood not  unworthy  of  his  greater  predecessor. 

Archdeacon  Farrar  of  Westminster  was  one  of  the  most 
versatile  and  variously  accomplished  representatives  of  the 
broad  church  school  in  his  day.  His  intellectual  interests 
were  wide  ranging,  and  he  made  a  respectable  figure  in  the 
handling  of  altogether  disparate  subjects.  His  discussions 
of  Bibhcal,  historical,  biographical,  and  educational  themes 
are  of  interest  and  value  in  their  fecundity,  freshness,  and 
range  of  thought  and  in  their  excellent  common  sense. 
Clear  rather  than  profound,  facile  rather  than  inventive, 
he  was  always  heard  with  interest  and  respect  because  he 
took  himself  and  his  subject  and  his  audience  seriously. 
His  graphic  "Life  of  Christ,"  one  of  the  most  successful 
of  his  pubhcations,  has  won  for  him  a  wide  circle  of  readers 
far  beyond  the  borders  of  his  own  country.  In  his  own 
communion  he  awakened  criticism  and  some  antagonism 
for  what  have  been  regarded  as  latitudinarian  views  of  the 
atonement  and  of  the  destiny  of  men  in  the  future  life. 
But  they  are  now  the  commonplaces  of  his  school  and  have 
even  won  standing  ground  in  other  schools.  He  was  a 
popular  writer  and  as  a  preacher  he  won  the  ear  of  all 
classes  by  the  facility,  the  fervor,  the  straightforwardness, 
and  the  practical  character  of  his  preaching. 

The  discourses  preached  at  Marlborough  College,  of 
which  he  was  for  six  years  head  master,  are  exceptionally 
interesting  in  the  practical  adaptation  of  the  subjects 
chosen  to  the  needs  of  young  students,  in  their  evangehcal 
spirit,  their  rehgious  earnestness,  their  human  sympathies, 
their  ethical  aim,  and  in  their  vigorous  and  copious  diction. 
They  are  direct  and  forceful  in  appeal,  somewhat  redun- 
dant and  not  wholly  elegant  in  style,  disclosing  theintentness 
of  the  preacher  upon  practical  and  not  upon  artistic  im- 
pression, abounding  in  Hterary  citations,  affluent,  rushing, 
and  must  have  made  a  strong  impression.  Lacking  the 
solidity,  dignity,  sobriety,  and  poise  of  Arnold's  and  Tern- 


222  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

pie's  Rugby  sermons,  they  are  much  more  popular  and 
interesting.  The  volume  of  Sermons  and  Addresses  de- 
livered in  the  United  States  in  1885,  to  which  Phillips 
Brooks  contributed  an  introduction,  take  a  higher  range 
and  reach  a  higher  altitude,  attracting  attention  by  their 
freshness  of  thought,  clearness  of  outHne,  facihty  of  ex- 
pression, and  their  abundance  of  literary  citation.  They 
touch  the  reahties  of  human  life  and  show  the  author's 
famiUarity  with  them.  They  disclose  a  catholic  and 
practical  spirit  and  are  helpful  in  their  human  sym- 
pathies. 

Archdeacon  Farrar  was  not  a  close  thinker,  nor  a  very 
important  teacher  of  reUgion,  but  he  was  one  of  the  most 
influential  and  useful  preachers  of  his  day  in  the  school  to 
which  he  belonged. 

There  hves  somewhere  in  retirement  and  at  an  advanced 
age,  unless  death  has  already  claimed  him,  a  genial  broad 
churchman  who  was  widely  known  thirty  or  forty  years 
ago  as  a  proHfic  and  interesting  writer  and  preacher,  John 
Llewelyn  Davies,  rector  at  St.  Marylebone.  Those  who 
were  accustomed  to  read  the  Enghsh  reviews  and  maga- 
zines came  frequently  into  connection  with  him  through 
his  racy,  sensible,  discriminating  articles  on  theological, 
social,  and  hterary  subjects.  He  has  published  five 
volumes  of  sermons.  The  most  interesting  and  valuable, 
perhaps,  are  "The  Christian  CalUng"  and  "The  Gospel 
and  Modern  Life."  They  discuss  important  theological, 
liturgical,  ethical,  and  ecclesiastical  questions  from  the 
modern  point  of  view  and  aim  to  meet  modern  difficulties. 
They  are  characterized  by  a  large  estimate  of  the  Gospel 
in  its  connection  with  practical  life,  and  seek  to  bring  it  into 
a  great  variety  of  life  relations.  They  are  very  helpful 
discourses,  bearing  the  marks  of  a  well-balanced  judg- 
ment, an  analytic  habit  of  mind,  clearness  and  facility 
of  statement,  and  are  eminently  promotive  of  practical 
godliness.    The   practical   character  of   his   thinking  is 


THE  ANGLICAN   PULPIT  223 

seen  especially  in  "The  Gospel  and  Modem  Life."  We 
note  especially  the  humanistic  as  distinguished  from  the 
ecclesiastical  point  of  view.  There  is  nothing  of  the  church 
dogmatist  in  his  discussions  of  "Humanity  and  the  Trin- 
ity," in  which  he  would  show  that  the  needs  of  our  human 
nature  furnish  a  practical  interpretation  of  the  Trinity. 
And  there  is  nothing  of  the  sacramentarian  in  his  discussion 
of  "Common  Worship"  and  "The  MoraUty  of  the  Lord's 
Supper." 

The  venerable  James  Maurice  Wilson,  Vicar  of  Rochdale 
and  Archdeacon  of  Manchester,  a  Cambridge  graduate,  is 
manifestly  one  of  the  ablest,  most  pronounced  and  aggres- 
sive, but  judicious  and  well  balanced  of  the  living  represent- 
atives of  the  broad  church  school.  A  large  portion  of  his 
life  has  been  devoted  to  teaching,  and  its  influence  upon  his 
clerical  Hfe  is  very  apparent.  For  twenty  years  he  was 
one  of  the  masters  at  Rugby,  where  he  taught  mathematics 
and  natural  science,  and  he  was  subsequently  for  some 
years  head  master  of  CHfton  College.  The  results  of  his 
studies  in  natural  science,  of  whose  disciphnar}'  value  in 
education  he  has  been  an  advocate  as  well  as  an  illustration, 
and  in  the  introduction  of  which  more  fully  into  the  pre- 
paratory schools  of  England  he  has  been  greatly  interested, 
are  manifest  in  his  teaching  of  reUgion  and  theology. 
These  studies  have  secured  for  him  his  point  of  view,  have 
fixed  his  method,  and  determined  his  general  attitude  tow- 
ard the  problems  of  theology.  He  follows  closely  and 
consistently  the  inductive  method  and  appeals  to  the 
facts  of  consciousness  and  of  experience  as  he  appeals  to 
the  facts  of  science.  Logic  in  the  reahn  of  religion  is  for 
him  of  but  relatively  Httle  primary  value.  To  the  authority 
of  the  church  in  fixing  or  in  interpreting  dogma  he  assigns 
a  very  hmited  sphere.  The  moral  and  rehgious  intuitions 
and  instincts  and  impulses,  which  are  ever  active  in  the 
normal  and  measurably  even  in  the  abnormal  experiences 
of  Hfe,  are  of  supreme  significance.     He  appeals  to  Chris- 


224  THE   MODERN  PULPIT 

tianity  as  a  living  power  in  the  world  and  finds  in  what  it 
has  done  and  is  doing  the  proof  of  its  divine  reahty.  A 
discriminating  clearness  of  thought,  and  accuracy,  skill, 
and  cogency  of  statement,  are  the  characteristics  of  his 
literary  style.  In  this  he  is  almost  the  rival  of  Robertson, 
and  in  it,  as  in  Robertson's  case,  we  seem  to  detect  the 
influence  of  the  study  of  natural  science.  In  a  volume 
of  "Essays  and  Addresses,"  pubhshed  in  1887  and  passed 
to  a  second  edition  in  1894,  he  discusses  in  a  very  straight- 
forward manner  some  of  the  important  current  questions 
in  ethics  and  theology,  "The  Authority  of  the  Church," 
"The  Theory  of  Inspiration,  or  Why  Men  do  not  BeHeve 
the  Bible,"  "Christian  Evidences,"  "Miracles,"  "Evolu- 
tion," "Fundamental  Church  Principles,"  "Morahty  in 
the  PubHc  Schools,"  and  "Higher  Biblical  Teaching  and 
Instruction  in  the  Churches,"  are  among  the  themes  dis- 
cussed, and  they  are  discussed  in  a  very  sane  and  satisfac- 
tory manner.  The  positions  taken  and  the  Hne  of  expo- 
sition and  argument  are  those  of  the  broad  churchman, 
and  they  are  eminently  helpful.  Most  of  his  writings 
evince  his  profound  interest  in  men  who  have  come  under 
the  influence  of  modern  agnosticism  and  they  meet  in  a 
manly  way  their  intellectual  difficulties.  It  is  clear  that 
he  himself  has  passed  through  the  struggles  of  doubt,  has 
fought  his  way  through  on  to  sohd  ground,  and  that  he  is 
eminently  fitted  to  help  those  who  are  in  a  hke  struggle. 
His  sympathy  with  all  honest,  manly  seekers  after  truth, 
especially  his  interest  in  young  men  who  have  been  deterred 
from  entering  the  Christian  Hfe  by  the  perplexities  with 
which  the  rehgion  of  the  modern  world  is  invested,  be- 
speak the  genuine  broad  churchman,  and  suggest  the  im- 
mense value  of  the  mediating  influence  of  this  school  in 
adjusting  Christianity  to  the  intellectual  disintegrations  of 
the  thought  of  our  day.  Four  discourses  on  the  "  Gospel 
of  the  Atonement,"  the  Hulsean  Lectures  for  1898,  1899, 
seek  to  get  at  the  heart  of  the  great  reahty  and  to  meet  the 


THE    ANGLICAN   PULPIT  22$ 

perplexities  of  men,  especially  of  young  men,  who  by  inade- 
quate or  by  what  he  would  regard  as  measurably  false 
teaching  have  been  aUenated   from  it.     They   approach 
the  subject  in  the  inductive  and  experimental  manner, 
and,  although  restricted  in  range,  they  are  in  their  spiritual 
insight   and    sympathy   of   great    practical   value.      The 
"Cambridge  Lectures  on  Pastoral  Theology"  for  1903,  to 
which  reference  has  already  been  made,  is  a  work  that  is 
worthy  of  thoughtful  attention  by  the  modern  minister  of 
whatever  school.    It  covers  but  a  limited  field,  but  it  touches 
its  subjects  fundamentally.     Pastoral  theology  is  the  theol- 
ogy of  pastoral  experience,  for  the  winning  of  which  as 
knowledge  the  pastorate  furnishes  the  best  possible  field 
and  such  theologv  should  become  a  living  reality  in  all 
forms  of  pastoral  service.     The  book  discloses  the  author's 
most  characteristic  traits,  his  interest  in  theological,  scien- 
tific, and  economic  studies,  his  breadth  of  \iew,  his  grasp 
of  the  fundamental  principles  of  his  school,  his  scientific 
method,  his  ethical  and  philanthropic  spirit,  and  his  genu- 
ine patriotism.     He  entered  the  ministry,  as  already  noted, 
comparativelv  late  in  Ufe,  and  the  value  of  his  experiences 
as  a  teacher, 'and  the  thoroughness  of  his  preparation  dur- 
ing the  entire  period  of  his  teaching,  are  seen  in  the  quahty 
of  his  work  as  a  minister.     His  farewell  sermon,  when  he 
left  Rugby,  on  the  power  of  the  hving  Christ,  has  found 
permanent  foi-m,  and  although  a  very  simple  product,_  with- 
out anvthing  that  is  obtrusive  or  striking,  is  interesting  as 
illustrating  the  thoroughly  practical  character  of  his  Chris- 
tianity and  his  devotion  to  a  practical  and  useful  life. 
A  discourse  preached  at  Cambridge,  which  also  has  found 
permanent  form  in  "The  Anghcan  Pulpit  of  To-day," 
on  "The  Continuity  of  Religious  Thought,"  is  also  mter- 
esting  as  illustrating  the  genuine  conservatism  of  his  broad 
churchmanship.     He  has  pubhshed  a  volume  of  sermons 
preached  at  CUfton  College,  while  head  master  there,  and 
more  recently  a  volume  of  "Rochdale  Sermons."     They 


226  THE   MODERN  PULPIT 

reveal  his  openness  of  vision  and  at  the  same  time  his 
soUcitude  for  the  conservation  of  permanent  rehgious  in- 
terests, his  sympathy  with  those  who  are  perplexed  in 
faith,  the  blending  of  the  ethical  and  rehgious  spirit,  and 
his  supreme  devotion  to  the  theology  whose  source  and  end 
is  hfe. 

They  are  strong,  sane,  manly  sermons,  presenting  reli- 
gious themes  in  a  straightforward  but  well-balanced  man- 
ner. The  technical  problems  of  homiletics  have  appar- 
ently not  interested  him,  and  he  shows  no  adequate  concep- 
tion of  the  value  of  homiletic  form.  The  discourses  are  in 
the  essay  manner,  with  movement  ahead,  indeed,  but  with- 
out boundary  marks  that  announce  progress.  Here,  as 
everywhere,  his  thought,  which  is  the  chief  interest,  is 
weighty  and  sohcits  attention  by  its  practical  worth.  Here 
too  is  the  same  lucidity,  accurateness,  and  directness  of 
style,  the  clear  analysis,  the  fehcity  and  force  of  statement, 
which  become  strongly  tributary  to  the  interest  and  profit 
of  his  pulpit  teaching. 


PREACHING  OF  THE  ENGLISH  FREE  CHURCHES     227 


m 

THE  PREACHING  OF  THE   ENGLISH  FREE   CHURCHES 

As  we  have  already  seen,  it  was  the  revolt  of  the  English 
Protestant  conscience  in  defence  of  personal  piety  and  of 
Bibhcal  revelation  against  the  traditional  and  institutional 
reUgion  of  the  estabhshed  church  that  furnished  one  of 
the  chief  historic  sources  for  the  preaching  of  Enghsh 
nonconformity.  Puritanism  and  Wesleyanism,  sup- 
ported by  Anglo-evangelicalism,  are  the  great  fountains 
of  influence  that  are  behind  it  and  that  have  measurably 
given  character  to  it  during  all  stages  of  its  subsequent 
development.  It  incorporates  what  is  best  in  the  original 
tradition  and  in  its  modem  form  reveals  many  of  the  most 
prominent  traits  of  its  historic  sources. 

I. 

The  dominant  qualities  of  Puritan  preaching  are  readily 
apprehended  and  may  be  easily  classified.  Some  of  them 
in  a  preliminary  way  may  perhaps  well  be  noted. 

i.  Its  intellectual  quality  was  notable.  The  Puritan 
preachers  were,  as  a  class,  and  in  a  preeminent  degree, 
advocates  of  an  intelligent  reUgion,  a  rehgion  that  can  be 
intellectually  appropriated  and  edif}dngly  taught.  As  a 
revelation  of  divine  truth  Christianity  must  appeal  to 
human  thought,  and  growth  in  Christian  character  and 
life  demands  an  intelUgent  presentation  of  it.  As  a  class 
they  were  men  of  profound  and  vigorous  understanding, 
thoroughly  educated  according  to  the  university  standards 


228  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

of  their  day,  of  robust  and  manly  character,  and  of  strong 
initiative  in  their  intellectual  leadership  of  the  churches. 
Some  of  them  have  already  been  mentioned,  and  may 
well  be  recalled  once  more.  They  were  such  men  as  the 
learned  Charnock;  John  Owen,  Vice-Chancellor  of  Ox- 
ford and  friend  of  Cromwell;  Calamay,  a  prominent 
Presbyterian  member  of  the  Westminster  Assembly; 
Manton,  one  of  the  most  elaborate  and  ingenious  of  all  the 
Puritan  preachers  ;  John  Howe,  the  Independent,  a  strong 
theological  and  ethi'co-pohtical  writer  as  well  as  edifying 
and  inspiring  preacher ;  the  fertile,  industrious,  and  saintly 
Baxter ;  the  brave  and  ingenious  Bunyan ;  Marshall,  the 
great  pulpit  orator  and  one  of  Cromwell's  chaplains; 
Flavel,  a  most  edifying  evangeUcal  preacher  and  writer 
on  subjects  pertaining  to  the  practical  Christian  life.  Later 
on  there  were  such  men  as  Watts  and  Doddridge,  psahn- 
ists  as  well  as  prophets  in  their  day.  These  and  many 
others  equally  prominent  were  among  the  homiletic  an- 
cestors of  the  preachers  of  the  modem  Enghsh  noncon- 
forming churches.  They  were  men  of  immense  industry, 
of  facile  productiveness,  and  of  wide- reaching  and  varied 
interests.  Their  fertility  and  ingenuity  as  preachers  are 
no  less  striking  than  their  skill  in  the  defence  of  their  Cal- 
vinistic  theology  in  the  form  of  treatises,  or  than  their  help- 
fulness and  edifying  suggestiveness  in  the  discussion  of 
themes  relating  to  the  practical  Christian  life.  It  was  a 
necessity  that  such  men  should  greatly  honor  rehgious  in- 
telligence and  independence  and  enterprise. 

ii.  The  pastoral  quahty  of  their  preaching  was  therefore 
prominent.  They  were  eminently  edifying  preachers. 
The  congregation  was  committed  to  their  charge  to  be 
built  up  into  strong  Christian  manhood.  They  had  in- 
deed the  unfaiUng  evangehstic  impulse  and  they  sought 
to  win  men  to  the  Christian  life  by  spiritual  conquest. 
But  it  was  their  ultimate  and  persistent  aim  to  develop 
sound  and  earnest  Puritan  piety,  and  to  build  up  sturdy 


PREACHING  OF  THE  ENGLISH  FREE  CHURCHES    229 

Puritan  character.  And  thus,  with  all  their  insistence 
upon  correct  theological  thinking,  their  aim  was  prevail- 
ingly practical.  The  sermon,  long  and  elaborate  though 
it  might  be,  never  failed  with  respect  to  practical  appHca- 
tion.  Their  themes  were  theological,  but  they  were  in 
general  shaped  with  reference  to  the  practical  interests 
of  edification  as  they  understood  them.  It  was  strong, 
sound,  evangeHcal  preaching,  according  to  their  lights, 
aiming  to  reach  the  conscience  and  will  through  the  un- 
derstanding, Baxter's  great  work  at  Kidderminster  was 
a  monument  of  zeal  and  fidehty  and  wisdom  as  a  shep- 
herd of  souls,  and  Bunyan,  as  a  preacher  to  the  common 
people,  was  not  less  pastoral  than  evangehstic,  exhibiting 
the  quaUties  of  a  robust  understanding  not  less  than  of  a 
briUiant  imagination. 

iii.  A  certain  noble  persuasiveness  was  another  quality 
worthy  of  note  in  Puritan  preaching.  It  is  true  that  the 
best-knowTi  preachers  among  them  would  perhaps  in  our 
day  be  called  elaborately  instructive  rather  than  popularly 
persuasive.  From  the  point  of  vie'^y  of  our  own  time  they 
would  be  called  theological  teachers  rather  than  popular 
advocates.  Methods  of  addressing  the  popular  mind 
have  greatly  changed,  and,  Bunyan  excepted,  but  few  of 
the  old  Puritan  preachers,  tested  by  our  standards,  would 
be  regarded  as  possessing  the  popular  quahty.  And  yet 
'in  and  for  their  day,  they  were  certainly  persuasive  and 
efiFective  preachers.  The  opposition  of  the  government 
in  aUiance  wth  the  church  drove  them  into  the  field  and 
conventicle,  and  under  these  and  other  unusual  conditions, 
conditions  in  various  ways  promotive  of  practical  effective- 
ness, they  learned  to  speak  with  great  directness  and  force- 
fulness.  Their  evangelical  zeal  and  evangehstic  purpose 
were  also  tributary  to  popular  effects.  Howe,  with  all 
his  theological  elaborateness,  was  not  only  a  clear,  but  a 
strongly  emotional  preacher  of  great  spiritual  impressive- 
ness.     The  same  was  preeminently  true  of  Baxter,  with 


230  THE   MODERN    PULPIT 

his  intellectual  clearness,  his  simpHcity  and  naturalness, 
his  ethical  directness  and  spiritual  pathos,  and  of  Flavel, 
with  his  strong  emotional  earnestness,  and  especially  of 
Bunyan,  with  his  quaint  imaginativeness  and  idiomatic 
strength. 

They  were,  moreover,  preachers  of  strong  ethical  purpose 
and,  for  their  day,  of  wide- reaching  human  interests.  Not 
only  the  political  and  ecclesiastical  conditions  of  the  age, 
but  the  Puritan  theory  of  the  relation  of  the  church  to  the 
state,  of  the  rights  of  the  individual  conscience  and  of  the 
duty  of  the  preacher  to  interest  himself  in  pubhc  affairs 
called  for  a  poKtical  type  of  preaching.  This  poHtical 
note,  which  was  characteristic  of  the  preaching  of  Puritan- 
ism, was  strikingly  contrasted  with  the  ecclesiastical  note, 
which  was  characteristic  of  the  preaching  of  the  estab- 
Hshed  church.  As  heirs  to  the  traditions  of  the  reformed 
church  of  Calvin,  they  were  behevers  in  the  dominating 
power  of  Christianity  as  related  to  the  great  interests  of 
human  life,  and  especially  to  the  interests  of  poUtical  Hfe. 
The  Revolution  and  the  Commonwealth  especially  called 
forth  this  type  of  preaching.  Howe,  Cromwell's  friend, 
had  been  a  parhamentary  preacher  under  the  monarchy. 
Marshall,  Cromwell's  chaplain,  w^as  also  a  parhamentary 
preacher.  They  all  dipped  freely  into  poHtical  questions, 
but  discussed  them,  not  from  the  poHtical,  but  from  the 
ethical  point  of  view,  as  their  successors  do  in  the  free 
churches  of  our  day.  And  with  this  virile  ethical  quaHty 
there  was  combined  a  searchingly  emotional  quaHty. 
Their  preaching  reached  not  only  the  consciences  of  men, 
but  it  undertook  to  reach  their  hearts  and  to  subdue  them 
to  God  as  it  subdued  them  to  righteousness. 

iv.  The  prophetic  outlook  of  their  preaching  was  an- 
other important  feature.  They  may  have  been,  they  were, 
rigid  in  adherence  to  their  theological  creeds,  and  laid 
undue  emphasis  upon  correct  theological  beHefs.  But 
they  were  always  ready*  to  appeal  from  all  human  authority 


PREACHING  OF  THE  ENGLISH  FREE  CHURCHES      23 1 

to  what  they  regarded  as  divine  authority.  They  were  not 
cathoUc  or  Hberal  or  tolerant  in  theory  or  in  spirit,  ac- 
cording to  the  modern  type,  and  were  the  enemies  of  all 
theological  latitudinarianism.  But  they  modified  the  Cal- 
vinism of  their  day  and  they  did  it  with  a  boldness  of 
initiative  that  was  admirable.  And,  although  jealously 
evangehcal  in  spirit,  they  were,  for  their  day,  broad- 
minded  men  and  had  a  worthy  outlook  upon  the  future. 
As  being  men  of  the  free  spirit  and  as  believing  in  the  illu- 
minating and  guiding  presence  of  God  in  the  souls  of 
beUevers,  it  could  not  be  otherwise.  Baxter,  in  his  con- 
ception of  the  Scriptures,  and  in  his  large  estimate  of  the 
scope  of  redemption,  anticipated  in  a  measure  much  that 
is  current  in  our  day. 

V.  As  anchoring  directly  to  the  Scriptures,  even  when 
defending  the  theological  creeds  of  the  churches,  their 
preaching  had  a  prevaihngly  Biblical  quality.  In  the  de- 
fence of  their  theology  they  were  sometimes  violently 
and  rudely  polemical,  wherein,  happily,  their  successors 
have  parted  company  with  them.  But  in  all  their  argu- 
ments they  sought  to  promote  a  rational  faith,  beHe\ing 
also  that  the  Scriptures  to  which  they  appealed  com- 
mended themselves  to  every  man's  conscience,  and  they 
accounted  no  defence  as  adequate  that  was  not  based  upon 
divine  revelation  as  attested  by  the  witnessing  Spirit  within. 
According  to  their  lights  they  were  most  diligent  BibHcal 
students,  and  sought  always  to  interpret  and  apply  the 
results  of  their  studies  to  edification  in  Christian  character 
and  to  guidance  in  Christian  conduct.  The  topical  ser- 
mon was  not  so  common  in  the  Puritan  as  in  the  AngHcan 
pulpit.  The  textual  and  expository  method  was  more  fre- 
quent, and  the  expository  sermon  adjusted  itself  to  doc- 
trinal discussion. 

These  are  a  few  of  the  saHent  features  of  early  Puritan 
preaching,  which  left  its  mark  on  the  Puritan  preachers 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  the  successors  of  the  early 


232  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

generations  have  been  men  of  much  the  same  spirit  and 
have  wrought  in  much  the  same  method.  In  a  certain 
intellectual  manliness,  the  tradition  of  the  elder  day  has 
been  perpetuated.  Its  prophetic  outlook  upon  the  future, 
its  spiritual  freedom,  its  evangehcal  devotion,  its  evange- 
Ustic  zeal,  its  pastoral  fideUty,  its  ethical  incentive,  its 
rhetorical  cogency  and  its  Bibhcal  tone  and  method,  modi- 
fied indeed  by  the  influences  at  work  in  modem  hfe,  are 
with  the  churches  still. 

vi.  But  Puritanism  in  the  eighteenth  century,  as  we 
have  seen,  had  deteriorated.  Scepticism  and  moral  decay 
had  invaded  its  ranks,  and  from  its  pristine  purity,  dignity, 
and  force  its  preaching  had  seriously  dechned.  A  new 
moral  and  spiritual  power  was  needed  to  rescue  it  from 
this  deterioration.  It  was  found  in  the  great  Wesleyan 
and  Anglo-evangehcal  revival,  to  which  attention  has 
already  been  directed,  but  which  demands  fuller  considera- 
tion in  this  connection.  It  left  most  important  results 
upon  all  the  dissenting  bodies  of  England  that  have  been 
perpetuated  to  our  own  time,  and  no  worthy  estimate  of 
the  preaching  of  the  English  free  churches,  in  any  branch 
of  them,  will  fail  to  give  it  due  recognition.  The  most 
important  result  was  the  restoration  of  the  Christian  hfe 
more  completely  to  the  realm  of  conscious  rehgious  ex- 
perience. Rehgion,  as  we  have  seen,  in  all  the  churches 
had  become  in  large  measure  external.  On  its  theoretic 
side,  as  it  appeared  in  the  theology  of  the  churches,  Chris- 
tianity was  defended  largely  upon  the  basis  of  its  external 
evidences.  This  method  of  defence  allied  itself  with  the 
rationahzing  tendencies  of  the  day,  and  in  the  process  rea- 
son was  divorced  from  the  sum  total  of  rehgious  experience. 
The  ethical  and  spiritual  forms  of  experience  were  under- 
valued and  rationaUty  became  a  one-sided  rationaHsm. 
On  the  practical  side  Christianity  in  the  estabhshed 
churches  had  become  institutional,  and  undertook  to 
dominate  the  individual  conscience  and  life  by  external 


PREACHING  OF  THE  ENGLISH  FREE  CHURCHES      233 

control.  The  conflict  between  Anglicanism  and  Metho- 
dism, as  earher  between  it  and  Puritanism,  was  a  conflict 
between  external  authority  and  internal  conviction,  be- 
tween institutionaUsm  and  spiritual  freedom.  Thus  the 
rehgious  Ufe  of  AngHcanism  had  become  excessively 
churchly  and  formal,  and  its  preaching  unreal  and  unfruit- 
ful. Puritanism  itself  had  become  subject  to  a  consid- 
erable extent  to  the  prevaihng  scepticism  and  the  rehgious 
extemahty  of  the  day,  although  it  had  never  wholly  lost 
its  pristine  freedom,  nor  its  pulpit  its  evangehcal  power. 
But  it  undertook  to  substitute  for  traditional,  ecclesiastical 
authority  the  external  and  formal  authority  of  the  apos- 
tohc  Scriptures  in  the  vindication  of  evangehcal  freedom. 
Church  Hfe  in  all  its  forms  must  have  the  exact  mark  of 
Scriptural  authority.  Thus  ultimately  the  churches  lost 
much  of  their  evangehcal  piety  and  church  hfe  became  ex- 
ternal. The  revival  movement  was  based  upon  the  sacred 
rights  of  the  inner  spiritual  hfe.  It  was  a  restoration  of  the 
mystical  element  in  religion  which  hberated  men  from 
bondage  to  external  authority.  It  was  indeed  not  an 
extreme  form  of  sentimental  mysticism  that  undervalued 
the  authority  of  the  Scriptures  and  all  external  institutions 
and  ordinances,  such  as  we  find  in  the  Society  of  Friends, 
nor  a  speculative  mysticism,  such  as  we  find  in  Sweden- 
borgianism,  both  of  which  are  products  of  the  century  and 
took  root  in  England.  It  was  an  evangehcal  type  of  mysti- 
cism, that  was  not  only  in  harmony  with  the  objectively 
given  facts  and  truths  of  historic  Christianity  but  with  their 
embodiment  in  church  institutions.  The  first  and  most 
immediate  result,  therefore,  of  this  great  movement  upon 
the  preaching  of  all  the  free  churches  of  England  was  to 
bring  it  back  anew  and  more  fuUy  than  ever  before  to  an 
experimental  basis.  It  was  another  fresh  product  of  ex- 
perimental rehgion.  It  became  once  more  a  "testimony" 
to  the  reahties  of  the  inner  hfe.  Upon  this  basis  lay  preach- 
ing became  common.     And  all  this  affected  the  subject- 


234  THE    MODERN    PULPIT 

matter  of  preaching  by  bringing  it  more  completely  within 
the  central  circle  of  the  great,  chief  truths  and  facts  of  the 
Gospel.  It  affected  also  its  tone  by  making  it  a  more  emo- 
tional and  sympathetic  and  spiritual  as  well  as  ethical  utter- 
ance, and  its  form  by  the  introduction  of  greater  simphcity, 
unelaborateness,  directness,  and  forcefulness. 

Another  result  of  the  re\dval  was  a  movement  in  the 
direction  of  Christian  cathoUcity,  fellowship,  and  unity, 
which  has  been  perpetuated  and  is  realized  to-day  in  the 
closer  confederation  of  all  the  free  churches.  Puritanism, 
as  tending  towards  an  extreme  of  individualism  and  of 
separateness,  was  weak  on  the  side  of  comprehension, 
catholicity,  and  fellowship.  It  consequently  lacked  an 
important  element  of  the  missionary  spirit.  The  revival 
brought  the  different  branches  of  dissent  into  closer  work- 
ing relations.  A  new  spirit  of  brotherhood  and  of  coopera- 
tion was  awakened,  which  has  never  been  lost.  Inde- 
pendency became  CongregationaUsm,  and  Presbyterian 
and  Congregational  churches  began  to  cooperate  in  mis- 
sionary enterprise,  a  movement  that  reached  the  United 
States  and  at  one  time  was  fully  developed  here.  It  was 
a  period  from  which  date  new  home  and  foreign  missionary 
efforts.  Voluntary  associations  of  various  sorts  —  mis- 
sionary societies,  Bible  societies,  tract  societies,  temper- 
ance and  Sunday-school  societies  —  sprang  into  existence 
and  a  new  impetus  was  given  to  Christian  literature.  The 
effect  of  all  this  upon  the  preaching  of  the  nonconforming 
bodies  was  that  it  was  broadened.  It  secured  for  it  a 
more  distinctly  evangelistic  and  in  general  missionary 
character.  It  became,  and  it  continues  to  be,  more  popu- 
larly effective.  It  is  true  that  we  still  find  diversities  of 
type  in  the  preaching  of  the  EngHsh  free  churches.  They 
have  not  reached  a  common  standard.  Each  branch  of 
nonconformity  has  its  o\mi  homiletic  peculiarities,  which 
correspond  measurably  to  what  we  find  in  the  United 
States.     Denominational  idiosyncrasies  are  perpetuated, 


PREACHING  OF  THE  ENGLISH  FREE  CHURCHES     235 

each  communion  bearing  its  own  historic  mark,  and  so  per- 
haps a  greater  variety  of  wants  is  met.  But  in  different 
degrees  and  in  different  ways  all  the  free  churches  disclose 
their  responsiveness  to  the  modifying  influences  of  the  age, 
and  there  are  some  things  that  are  to  a  considerable  extent 
common  and  that  stand  out  with  a  considerable  degree  of 
prominence  which  may  well  claim  our  attention. 

II. 

i.  On  its  intellectual  side  the  preaching  of  the  modem 
free  churches  discloses  an  increasing  prevalence  of  the  re- 
flective habit  of  mind.  It  has  been  characterized  as  more 
philosophical  than  the  preaching  even  of  a  quarter  of  a 
century  ago.  It  is  somewhat  difficult  to  define  just  what 
is  meant  by  this.  But  it  is  evident  that  the  preaching  of 
EngUsh  nonconformity  is  less  objective  than  that  of  a 
former  period.  It  is  more  subjective  and  analytical, 
deahng  more  fullv  with  the  mner  reahties  of  things.  It 
enters  more  completely  into  the  realm  of  human  expe- 
rience. The  meditative  takes  the  place  of  the  dogmatic 
habit  of  mind,  and  mental  sobriety  moderates  all  excess 
of  passion. 

This  subjective  and  reflective  habit  of  mmd  has  a  gen- 
eral tendencv  toward  mysticism.  The  mystical  and  the 
philosophical  spirit  are  not  far  remote  from  each  other. 
Many  of  the  free-church  preachers,  hke  Dr.  Horton,  are  of 
a  pronounced  mystical  tendency,  and  as  such  are  among 
the  most  suggestive  and  helpful  of  EngHsh  preachers. 

It  is  not  preeminently  a  learned  pulpit.  But  few  of  the 
training  schools  of  the  free  churches  have  reached  the 
highest  mark  of  excellence,  and  the  great  historic  schools  of 
learning  have  not  until  recently  been  open  to  them.  Their 
ministers  have  not  m  general  the  culture  of  the  Anghcan 
clergy.  Thev  are,  in  fact,  less  learned  than  their  ecclesias- 
ticaf  ancestors.     They  are  practical  preachers  and  much 


236  THE   MODERN  PULPIT 

less  apologetic  than  their  fathers.  They  are  to  a  consider- 
able extent  self-educated  men,  and  in  their  intellectual 
struggles  they  become  inventive  and  self-reUant.  Their 
faculties  are  not  trained  in  scholastic  Unes,  but  in  the 
school  of  experience.  They  have  brooded  upon  the  reali- 
ties of  human  life  and  have  learned  to  interpret  them  in  a 
clear  and  cogent  manner.  Their  constituencies  demand 
that  when  they  enter  the  pulpit  they  have  something  worth 
while  to  say,  and  what  they  say  comes  from  the  field  of 
independent  reflection  and  meets  the  wants  of  their  hearers 
because  it  interprets  their  lives  to  them.  They  are,  to  a 
large  extent,  Bibhcal  preachers,  and  they  have  a  better 
grasp  than  ever  before  of  the  inner  significance  of  Biblical 
truth.  But  with  their  analytic,  reflective  habit  there  is 
good  sense  and  clear  thinking  put  into  direct,  forceful 
speech,  and  it  is  eminently  effective  preaching. 

ii.  EngUsh  preaching  in  general  has  not  been  charac- 
terized by  surplus  sentiment  or  feeling.  It  has  been  more 
confessional  than  mystical,  objective  and  realistic  than 
inward  and  sentimental.  The  typical  EngHshman  is  con- 
stitutionally reserved.  It  is  not  natural  for  him  to  dis- 
close freely  his  inner  Ufe.  If  he  becomes  emotional  and 
sentimental,  he  is  in  danger  of  degenerating  into  cant 
and  unreaHty,  as  evangehcahsm  and  Methodism  have  at 
times  demonstrated.  But  while  the  practical  faculties 
abundantly  assert  themselves  in  the  preaching  of  the  free 
churches,  one  clearly  discerns  the  influence  of  the  subjec- 
tive tendencies  of  our  day.  It  is  therefore  characterized 
by  a  larger  measure  of  feeling  and  sentiment,  balanced  by  a 
habit  of  thoughtfulness,  than  was  found  in  the  preaching 
of  a  former  period,  and  thus  discloses  a  fuller  culture  of  the 
religious  Ufe.  There  is  often  discernible  in  it  the  note 
of  pathos,  which  suggests  famiharity  with  the  sufferings 
and  hardships  of  human  life.  The  sentiment  of  com- 
passion seems  to  have  been  richly  cultivated  by  their 
preachers,  and  the  tone  of  harshness  that  often  character- 


PREACHING  OF  THE  ENGLISH  FREE  CHURCHES     237 

ized  their  predecessors  has  vanished.  Their  preaching 
enters  more  fully  than  ever  before  into  the  experiences  of 
the  human  soul.  It  comes  into  closer  contact  with  the 
life  of  the  people  and  grapples  sympathetically  with  the 
disorders  of  human  life.  It  has  appropriated  the  spirit 
of  modem  literature  which  expresses  the  passions,  the  long- 
ings, and  the  dissatisfactions  of  the  soul,  and  the  culture 
of  life  and  of  literature  have  made  it, more  human. 

iii.  It  is  natural,  therefore,  that  it  should  exhibit  a  well- 
balanced  combination  of  the  didactic  and  the  persuasive, 
of  the  pastoral  and  the  evangehstic  elements.  Not  only 
the  culture  of  ministerial  Hfe  but  the  demands  of  the  con- 
stituencies of  the  free  churches  necessitate  this  combina- 
tion. The  members  of  these  communions  must  be  won 
to  a  large  extent  evangehstically.  They  are  not  baptized 
into  the  churches,  and  do  not  take  their  places  there  by 
right  of  baptism.  Pastoral  edification  is  indeed  a  promi- 
nent aim  in  the  preaching  of  these  churches,  but  edification 
according  to  the  dogmatic  method  has  vanished. 

As  in  most  of  the  Protestant  churches  of  our  day 
indoctrination  has  ceased  to  be  synonymous  with  edifi- 
cation. It  is  Biblical  rehgion  rather  than  church  doctrine 
that  nurtures  the  religious  hfe.  And  it  is  the  BibHcal  and 
experimental  quahty  that  furnishes  a  type  of  preaching 
that  is  persuasive  and  a  type  of  persuasion  that  is  based  on 
teaching. 

iv.  In  form,  therefore,  the  preaching  of  the  free  churches 
has  in  an  eminent  degree  the  modem  suggestive  rather 
than  the  elaborate  quality.  EngHsh  preaching  in  general 
is  in  our  day  characterized  by  colloquial  simpHcity  and 
practical  directness.  The  rhetorical  stateUness  and  omate- 
ness  of  a  former  period  has  vanished.  The  influence 
of  the  parKamentary  type  of  speech  is  marked.  It  has 
a  simple,  straightforward,  businesslike  quality.  This 
influence  is  prominent  and  preeminent  in  the  preaching 
of  the  free  churches,  which  is  dominated  so  largely  by 


238  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

the  practical  and  democratic  spirit  of  the  age.  The 
influence  also  of  modern  literary  culture  is  seen  here. 
The  training  of  simpler  literary  tastes,  which  is  a  mark 
of  our  time,  and  the  more  direct,  straightforward  business- 
like method  of  dealing  with  all  questions  that  are  brought 
before  the  pubHc,  and  which  is  a  characteristic  product 
of  a  commercial  age,  are  the  two  influences  that  explain 
measurably  the  naturalness,  unpretentiousness,  un- 
elaborateness  and  colloquial  directness  of  the  rhetoric 
and  oratory  that  carry  the  preaching  of  these  churches. 
In  structural  simpHcity  and  in  rhetorical  freedom  it  is  at 
once  attractive  and  forceful.  It  has  been  supposed  that 
the  influence  of  Mr.  Spurgeon  is  to  be  seen  in  all  this. 
But  it  is  in  fact  quite  independent  of  him.  Mr.  Spurgeon 
has  only  furthered  what  preceded  him  and  produced  him. 

The  preaching  of  nonconformity,  then,  is  practical 
and  popular.  It  touches  human  life  on  all  sides  and 
interprets  all  forms  of  human  experience.  The  whole 
modern  world  is  open  to  it.  Political,  industrial,  philan- 
thropic as  well  as  ecclesiastical  and  rehgious  questions 
are  thrust  upon  it.  As  a  consequence,  pulpit  individuality 
is  nowhere  in  England  so  fully  developed,  and  no  type 
of  English  preaching  is  so  popular.  The  dominance 
of  AngUcanism  has  cast  a  shadow  over  nonconformity 
and  loaded  it  with  many  disabilities.  But  it  has  never 
succeeded  in  thwarting  its  purposes,  nor  in  permanently 
crippling  its  work.  It  has  a  firmer  grip  than  ever  before 
upon  the  intelligence  and  the  enterprise  of  the  middle 
classes  of  England.  Its  increasing  power  over  the  mas- 
culine mind  is  worthy  of  special  note.  It  is  a  force  to 
be  reckoned  with  in  English  politics  and  in  all  questions 
of  social  reform,  and  it  has  wrought  effectively  in  modify- 
ing the  preaching  of  the  AngUcan  church. 

v.  With  respect  to  the  doctrinal  quality  of  the  preach- 
ing of  English  nonconformity,  one  readily  recognizes  the 
conservative  habit  of  what  may  be  called  the  evangehcal 


PREACHING  OF  THE  ENGLISH  FREE  CHURCHES    239 

type  of  faith.  Theological  radicalism  in  English  noncon- 
formity is  for  the  most  part  represented  by  the  so-called 
liberal  wing  of  the  free  churches,  as  it  is  by  the  broad  church 
wing  of  the  estabUshment.  But  the  free  churches,  for  the 
more  part,  cherish  the  evangeUcal  spirit,  and  are  making 
effort  to  hold  the  continuity  of  evangelical  church  life 
and  to  perpituate  in  a  rational  and  progressive  manner 
the  evangelical  traditions.  It  is  true  that  the  spirit  of 
personal  and  ecclesiastical  freedom,  to  which  all  the  non- 
conforming churches  of  England  are  heirs,  renders  them 
readily  responsive  to  the  movements  of  modern  thought. 
The  spirit  of  free  inquiry  is  nowhere  repressed,  although 
we  occasionally  hear  of  sporadic  instances  of  theological 
intolerance,  and  these  churches  are  not  only  responsive 
to  theological  innovations,  but  are  hospitable  to  all  that 
looks  toward  the  future  of  religious  and  theological  progress. 
But  \nth  all  their  freedom  and  hospitahty,  allegiance  to 
the  Gospel  of  Christ,  as  containing  the  great  message  of 
redemption,  is  still  a  strong  characteristic  of  English 
nonconformity.  It  is  true  that  there  is  more  careful 
discrimination  than  formerly  between  what  is  primary 
and  what  is  secondary  in  Christian  doctrine,  and  some 
teachings  that  were  once  regarded  as  a  vital  part  of  the 
evangelical  faith  have  been  abandoned  as  untrue,  or  at 
any  rate  as  of  minor  importance.  Modified  conceptions 
of  the  character  of  God  and  of  the  nature  and  scope  of 
redemption  disclose  themselves  especially  in  the  escha- 
tology  of  these  churches.  Corresponding  communions  in 
the  United  States  are  on  the  whole  somewhat  more  con- 
servative in  their  eschatology.  The  Congregationalists 
of  England  have,  according  to  the  testimony  of  Dr.  Allon, 
abandoned  the  doctrine  of  eternal  punishment  as  formerly 
held  by  them.  Dr.  Binney,  whose  influence  in  holding 
the  Congregational  churches  to  the  anchorage  ground  of 
the  evangeHcal  faith  was  strong,  broke  at  this  point 
with  the  evangeHcal  tradition.     But,  on  the  other  hand, 


240  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

the  English  nonconforming  churches  still  hold  more  firmly 
to  what  may  be  called  the  evangelical  centre,  and  they 
reach  further  back  into  the  heart  of  it  than  some  of  the 
corresponding  churches  in  the  United  States.  They 
seem,  on  the  whole,  to  have  appropriated  more  cautiously, 
and  perhaps  judiciously,  the  results  of  modern  Biblical 
and  theological  criticism.  They  do  not  seem  to  regard 
the  atonement,  however  modified  their  conceptions  of 
it  may  be,  as  an  abandoned  theological  centre.  They 
may  have  appropriated  a  more  reaHstic  and  less  speculative 
conception  of  it,  but  they  have  not  allowed  themselves 
to  be  dislodged  from  what  has  central  significance  in  it. 
The  influence  of  Horace  Bushnell  upon  the  Enghsh  free 
churches  has  doubtless  been  strong,  although  it  has  not 
resulted  in  the  adoption  of  his  views  of  the  atonement 
by  many  of  their  prominent  representatives.  But  Bush- 
nell himself,  so  far  from  abandoning  the  atonement  as 
a  doctrinal  centre,  simply  sought  to  secure  for  it  a  stronger, 
because,  as  he  was  persuaded,  a  more  rational  and  more 
Christian  basis.  What  is  ethically  vital  and  commanding 
in  the  great  outstanding  historic  fact  of  the  atonement 
still  seems  to  dominate  the  thought  and  Ufe  of  English 
nonconformity  as  a  whole.  Nor  have  they  apparently 
to  any  very  considerable  extent  abandoned  the  historic 
basis  of  the  incarnation  and  of  the  resurrection,  nor 
have  they  substituted  for  the  historic  Christ  of  the  Gospels 
a  subUmated,  ideahzed,  unhistoric,  semi-docetic  Christ, 
who  never  entered  the  human  race  supematurally  and  never 
left  it  in  a  corresponding  manner.  Nor  do  they,  in  thus 
holding  to  the  anchorage  ground  of  historic  Christianity, 
apparently  regard  themselves  as  belonging  to  the  un- 
instructed  crowd,  or  as  bereft  of  the  fellowship  of  the 
intellectually  and  spiritually  elite  in  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
The  tone  of  evangelical  fervor  and  seriousness  that  char- 
acterizes the  preaching  of  most  Enghsh  nonconformists 
whom  it  has  been  the  privilege  of  the  American  churches 


PREACHING  OF  THE  ENGLISH  FREE  CHURCHES    241 

to  hear,  or  whom  it  has  been  the  privilege  of  American 
preachers  to  hear  in  their  own  churches  in  England,  has 
made^  a  most  favorable  impression.  And  the  stress  point 
here  is  that  this  evangehcal  tone  is  a  genuine  product  of 
the  faith  of  the  churches  in  supernatural  Christianity. 
It  is  this  in  large  measure  that  secures  for  it  the  greater 
cogency  and  effectiveness.  There  is  in  it  a  persuasive 
power,  the  full  measure  of  which  one  fails  to  find  in  Ameri- 
can preaching,  even  among  those  churches  which  are  also 
heirs  to  the  old  Puritan  and  Wesleyan  tradition. 

III. 

The  modern  conditions  of  pulpit  effectiveness  are 
conspicuously  illustrated  in  the  different  free  church 
communions. 

i.  EngHsh  Presbyterianism  has  drifted  from  the  an- 
chorage ground  of  the  Westminster  confession.  In  fact, 
it  has  practically,  if  not  consciously  and  dehberately, 
thrown  off  all  allegiance  to  it,  and  thereby  has  become 
more  Christian  and  genuinely  evangehcal.  In  the  preach- 
ing of  its  most  cultivated  representatives  there  is  scarcely 
a  distinguishable  rehc  of  the  old  Presbyterian  confessional- 
ism.  It  renders  loyal  allegiance  to  historic  Christianity, 
and  some  of  the  ablest  English  defenders  of  supernatural- 
ism  are  found  in  this  communion.  But  the  doctrinal 
Christianity  of  a  former  period  is  not  known.  Its  con- 
ception of  the  nature  and  authority  of  the  Scriptures 
has  been  modified,  and  its  preaching  is  of  an  experimental 
and  practical  character.  It  holds  with  tenacity  the  Puritan 
tradition  of  a  learned  ministry,  but  lays  new  stress  upon 
the  consecrated  spiritual  gifts  of  the  preacher,  upon  the 
soul's  immediate  contact  with  Christ,  upon  the  witness 
of  the  Spirit  in  the  individual  bchever  and  in  the  com- 
munity of  behevers,  and  upon  the  vahdating  significance 
of  Christian  experience  in  testing  the  claims  of  Christian 


242  THE    MODERN   PULPIT 

truth.  In  its  conflict  with  the  naturalistic  criticism  that 
denies  the  historic  reahty  of  the  Christ  of  the  Gospels, 
the  old  Puritan  truth  of  the  indwelHng  of  the  exalted 
Christ  by  his  Spirit  and  the  knowledge  of  Christ  in  expe- 
rience, have  received  new  emphasis.  In  the  Rev.  Dr. 
W.  Robertson  Nicoll,  well  and  most  favorably  known  as 
editor  of  the  Expositor,  "The  Expositor's  Bible,"  "The 
Expositor's  Greek  Testament,"  and  the  British  Weekly, 
we  are  brought  into  connection  with  a  man  of  competent 
BibUcal  learning  and  of  high  Hterary  accomplishments 
who  defends  supernatural  Christianity  with  conspicuous 
vigor  and  skill  and  with  weapons  that  are  adequate  to 
the  needs  of  our  day.  In  his  Httle  volume  "The  Church's 
One  Foundation,"  which  deals  with  the  person  of  Christ 
and  recent  criticism,  he  meets  the  naturalistic  assumptions 
of  the  critics  with  the  counter  assumption  of  the  super- 
natural, and  defends  the  position  that  the  incarnation  and 
resurrection  constitute  the  centre  of  Christianity  as  a 
historic  religion.  But  he  discloses  full  confidence  in  sane, 
critical  processes  and  in  the  results  of  honest  historical 
investigation,  and  will  meet  the  critics  on  their  own  ground. 
His  skill  in  literary  criticism  and  his  expert  knowledge 
of  its  canons  or  regulative  principles  won  in  the  fields 
of  general  literary  culture,  enable  him  to  deal  most  tren- 
chantly with  the  subjective  caprice  of  the  new  school  of 
BibUcal  critics.  "It  is  useless  to  lift  up  hands  of  horror. 
The  critics  must  be  met,  otherwise  the  door  of  faith  will 
be  closed  on  multitudes." 

The  battle  for  Christianity  turns  not  on  the  inerrancy 
of  the  narratives  nor  on  their  authorship.  Faith  is  not 
belief  in  a  book,  but  in  a  Christ  who  brings  a  redemptive 
revelation.  This  historic  Christ  is  a  reaUty,  and  we  may 
know  him  as  such.  But  we  know  him  also  in  inward 
experience,  and  are  not  wholly  dependent  for  our  knowl- 
edge of  him  upon  learning,  nor  upon  apologetic  defences, 
nor  upon  critical  acumen.     Christ  may  be  known  as  a 


PREACHING  OF  THE  ENGLISH  FREE  CHURCHES      243 

spiritual  presence  and  power,  in  relative  independence  of 
critical  and  historical  investigation.  And  here  we  have 
in  fresh  form  the  old  Presbyterian  doctrine  of  the  witness 
of  the  Spirit  of  the  living  Christ  in  the  souls  of  believers. 
Christianity  is  "primarily  a  converting  and  sanctifying 
power,"  a  permanent  miracle,  and  "secondarily  and  only 
secondarily,  a  moral  and  social  lever,  an  agent  in  the 
salvation  of  society."  Sin  is  a  dark  reality,  "  the  deep  and 
fatal  wound  of  humanity  —  that  must  be  healed,"  —  and 
here,  too,  we  have  the  old  Presbyterian  evangel,  but  in 
modern  form. 

Dr.  John  Watson,  the  peer  of  his  friend  Dr.  Nicoll 
in  literary  culture  and  skill,  and  a  most  interesting  inter- 
preter of  evangeHcal  Christianity,  is  another  of  the  notable 
representatives  of  modern  Enghsh  Presbyterianism.  His 
essays,  which  apparently  were  originally  in  the  form  of 
sermons,  have  reached  a  wide  circle  of  readers.  "Compan- 
ions of  the  Sorrowful  Way,"  which  deals  with  the  friends, 
helpers,  and  comforters  of  Jesus  in  his  earthly  career, 
and  "The  Upper  Room,"  which  deals  in  Hke  suggestive 
and  impressive  manner  v^th  the  persons,  scenes,  and 
events  associated  with  the  last  earthly  experiences  of  our 
Lord,  are  among  the  best  modern  books  of  devotional 
reading,  of  which  there  is  so  lamentable  a  lack.  In  their 
spiritual  helpfulness,  their  tender  pathos,  and  their 
fineness  of  literary  touch,  they  are  a  treasure.  Dr. 
Watson  is  widely  known  as  a  man  of  independent  and 
cathohc  spirit,  but,  equally  with  Dr.  Nicoll,  he  is  devoted 
to  the  evangehcal  faith  as  it  is  held  by  the  broadest 
thinkers  of  his  church.  His  theological  views  appear  in 
definite  form  in  "The  Doctrines  of  Grace."  It  is  a  force- 
ful and  skilful  defence,  in  attractive  literary  form  and  in 
generous  cathohc  spirit,  of  Christianity  as  a  supernatural 
force  in  hfe.  The  Divinity  of  Christ  and  his  vicarious 
sacrifice  are  with  him  the  central  and  catholic  truths  of 
Christianity.     Election  is  a  provincial  doctrine  at  best, 


244  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

highly  objectionable  in  its  old  Calvinistic  form,  and  must 
be  restated  to  be  acceptable  at  all.  The  sacrifice  of  Christ 
is  interpreted  by  human  analogies  and  is  represented  as 
containing  nothing  that  is  exceptional  or  unique  in  princi- 
ple. Christ's  identification  with  the  human  race  conditions 
his  sacrificial  effectiveness.  It  avails,  moreover,  because 
it  is  a  holy  sacrifice  and  because  it  is  the  sacrifice  of  God 
himself.  But  it  declares  not  only  the  love  of  God  for 
sinful  men,  but  his  hatred  of  their  sin,  and  this  answers  to 
our  ethical  needs,  for  we  do  not,  on  moral  grounds,  wish 
an  easy  pardon.  Miracle  is  not  a  subversion  of  law,  but 
a  new  apphcation  of  it.  It  belongs  to  a  higher  realm  of 
law  and  discloses  it.  One  may  deny  supernatural  grace 
and  as  a  deist  fight  a  good  fight  against  sin,  although  such 
a  one  will  lack  the  inspiration  which  a  supernatural 
power  may  bring.  The  sentiment  of  mercy,  which  was  de- 
fective in  the  old  Enghsh  Presbyterianism,  is  abundantly 
manifest  in  its  modern  representatives,  and  it  is  at  just 
this  point  that  their  break  with  the  old  Calvinist  tradition 
is  most  signal.  "One  were  surely  not  worthy  to  be  called 
after  Christ's  name,"  says  Dr.  Watson,  "who  should  be 
w^iUing  that  any  person  be  condemned  to  endless  miser}-, 
and  he  would  be  unworthy  of  the  name  of  a  man  who 
could  think  of  his  fellow- creatures  in  a  hopeless  hell 
without  mercy." ^  Restoration  is  "the  hope  we  all  would 
cherish,  and  which  would  make  glad  our  hearts ;  it  is  the 
consummation  we  beheve  God  desires,  and  which  would 
be  the  crown  of  Christ's  work."  Yet  punishment  remains 
as  long  as  sin  remains,  and  "among  the  mercies  of  God  by 
which  we  are  weaned  from  unrighteousness  and  held 
in  the  way  everlasting,  not  the  least  is  the  punishment  of 
sin  both  in  this  world  and  in  that  which  is  to  come.^ 

In  common  with  all  the  free  churches  we  see  in  Enghsh 
Presbyterianism  the  influence  of  modern  Hfe  as  well  as 
modem  thought.     Its  leaders  are  among  the  most  aggres- 

*  "The  Doctrines  of  Grace,"  277.  ^  Ibid.,  293. 


PREACHING  OF  THE  ENGLISH  FREE  CHURCHES      245 

sive  in  the  support  of   evangelistic  preaching.     Some  of 
its  churches  are  largely  composed  of  those  who  have  been 
won  by  those  open-air  evangeUstic   services,  which  are 
much  more   common   in   England    than   in   the    United 
States.     Dr.    John   McNeil,   formerly   pastor  of   Regent 
Square  Presbyterian  Church  of  London,  is  one  of  the 
most  noted  and  popular  mission  preachers  of  England,  and 
through  his  influence  the  new  awakening  of  the  churches 
in  support  of  evangeHstic  preaching  has  been  accelerated. 
He  entered  the  ministry  in  the  maturity  of  his  powers, 
and  his  early  experiences  in  the  Enghsh  railway  service 
and  the  eight  years  of  study  required  by  the  Presbyterian 
church  have  fitted  him  excellently  well  for  the  mission  work 
in  which  he  is  engaged,  and  which  has  taken  him  into  all 
parts  of  Great  Britain  and  the  Colonies.    His  three  volumes 
of  pubHshed  sermons  are  of  the  evangelistic  type,  and  are 
notable  for  their  elevation  of  tone  and  for  their  forceful- 
ness  and  practical  effectiveness. 

ii.  Enghsh  Methodism  has  enlarged  its  intellectual 
horizon  and  reveals,  among  the  more  intelHgent  classes 
of  its  adherents,  the  same  aspiration  for  scientific  and 
literary  culture  which  we  find  in  American  Methodism, 
and  which  awakens  anxiety  in  many  thoughtful  minds 
as  to  its  possible  effect  upon  that  special  type  of  evangehstic 
service  in  which  it  has  been  so  conspicuously  successful 
and  useful.  Men  of  no  insignificant  attainments  in  physical 
science  and  in  exegetical  science,  hke  Dr.  Joseph  A.  Beet, 
and  in  dogmatics  hke  Dr.  William  B.  Pope,  are  numbered 
among  its  ministers.  In  England,  as  well  as  in  the  United 
States,  other  communions  are  indebted  to  it  for  some  of 
their  most  effective  preachers.  In  various  aspects  of  its 
development  —  intellectual,  ecclesiastical,  and  practical— 
it  shows  itself  to  be  emancipated  to  a  large  extent  from  a 
certain  crudeness  and  provinciahsm  that  characterized 
a  former  period.  But  with  the  broadening  of  its  scope 
it  is  still  true  to  what  has  been  distinctive  of  it  as  a  rehgious 


246  THE   MODERN  PULPIT 

movement.  More  fully,  perhaps,  than  American  Methodism 
does  it  in  the  best  sense  disclose  the  power  of  the  Wesleyan 
tradition.  It  is  not  without  significance  as  to  the  true 
genius  of  Enghsh  Methodism,  and  is  by  no  means  sugges- 
tive altogether  of  unfaithfulness  or  incompetence,  that 
the  Salvation  AiTny  sprung  from  its  loins,  for  it  has  de- 
tached and  embodied,  in  crude  form  it  may  be,  some  of 
the  best  features  of  Methodism.  Wesleyanism  is  pre- 
eminently the  religion  of  the  spirit,  the  religion  of  the 
inner  life,  the  religion  of  fervid  emotion,  of  practical 
self-denial,  of  principled  unworldlincss,  of  philanthropic 
and  missionary  enterprise.  Still  as  ever,  only  in  higher 
form  and  fuller  measure,  it  reveals  the  beneficent  results 
for  the  pulpit  of  a  system  of  professional  training  in  which 
men  "learn  to  preach  by  preaching"  and  by  the  inspiration 
of  personal  example  and  concrete  illustration,  as  well  as 
by  the  appHcation  of  formal  rules  or  the  study  of  abstract 
theories.  It  must  be  acknowledged  that  for  purposes  of 
practical  effectiveness  the  homiletic  training  of  English 
Methodist  preachers  is  most  admirable,  and  is  worthy 
of  careful  study. 

The  late  Rev.  Hugh  Price  Hughes  was  perhaps  the 
most  notable  representative  of  that  type  of  modern  English 
Methodism  that  would  combine  a  higher  scientific  and 
literary  culture  with  greater  practical  ecclesiastical  effec- 
tiveness. He  was  in  part  Welsh,  and,  like  many  other 
prominent  English  preachers,  he  shared  the  religious 
susceptibility,  the  force,  the  passion,  and  the  eloquence 
of  his  ancestry.  At  the  London  University,  from  which 
he  graduated  at  an  early  age,  there  were  developed  those 
literary  and  scientific  tastes  and  aspirations  that  led  him 
in  the  early  period  of  his  ministry  into  disrelish  of,  and 
even  a  certain  opposition  to,  the  revival  methods  of  his 
church.  His  tastes  alhed  him  with  the  more  refined  and 
cultivated  classes  in  his  communion,  and  he  was  never 
quite  at  home  with  the  emotional  excitement  to  which  a 


PREACHING  OF  THE  ENGLISH  FREE  CHURCHES     247 

portion  of  the  constituency  of  his  church  is  susceptible. 
But  the  pressure  of  life  and  the  exigencies  of  his  ministry, 
with  the  deepening  of  his  own  reHgious  experience,  forced 
him  from  the  sphere  of  Hterary  aspiration  and  rescued 
him  to  the  evangehsm  of  his  communion,  which,  however, 
he  developed  in  higher  forms  and  by  broader  methods, 
becoming  its  most  effective  preacher  in  this  combination 
of  hterary  culture  and  evangehstic  zeal.  Under  his 
leadership  Enghsh  Methodism  has  greatly  enlarged  the 
scope  of  its  social  activities  and  of  its  philanthropic  and 
missionary  enterprise.  Its  different  branches  have  been 
brought  into  closer  cooperation,  and,  although  the  so- 
called  "Forward  Movement"  of  the  free  churches,  by 
which  they  have  been  brought  into  closer  relation  and 
fuller  and  more  effe9tive  cooperation,  originated  with 
Congregationahsm,  it  was  to  a  large  extent  through  his 
skilful  and  forceful  advocacy  in  pulpit  and  in  press, 
that  it  was  furthered  and  became  an  assured  success. 
By  reason  of  his  skill  in  meeting  the  educated  classes, 
he  was  in  his  early  ministry  sent  to  Oxford,  where  he 
introduced  open-air  meetings,  organizing  young  men, 
students,  and  others,  for  combined  work,  sending  them 
out  into  neighboring  villages  in  groups  of  four,  and  in  a 
year  and  a  half  won  fifteen  hundred  new  members  to  his 
churches. 

In  West  London,  later  on,  which  became  the  scene  of 
his  permanent  and  most  successful  ministry,  he  initiated 
a  widespread  evangehstic  movement  in  the  interests  of 
the  unchurched  classes.  He  introduced  changes  in  prac- 
tical administration  that  were  somewhat  revolutionary. 
Somewhat  after  the  Salvation  Army  methods  conditions 
were  modified  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  crowds  he  sought 
to  win.  Church  buildings  were  remodelled  and  made 
more  attracdve,  commodious,  and  convenient,  the  high 
pulpit  gave  place  to  the  broad  platform,  and  brass  bands 
did  service  in  front  of  church  or  hall  and  called  the  crov/ds. 


248  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

Economic  questions  and  questions  in  general  relating  to 
the  external  and  earthly  welfare  of  the  people  were  dis- 
cussed on  Sunday  afternoon  and  became  tributary  in  a 
subordinate  way  to  the  evangeUstic  movement.  Price 
Hughes,  as  he  is  famiharly  known,  was  distinguished  not 
less  as  editor,  platform  orator,  reformer,  and  organizer 
than  as  preacher,  and  in  the  various  forms  of  his  skilful 
advocacy  and  administrative  initiative  he  greatly  furthered 
the  cause  of  evangehsm  and  philanthropy  and  of  an  intel- 
ligent Christianity  in  his  church.  He  pubHshed  several 
volumes  of  sermons.  "  Ethical  Christianity, "  a  volume  of 
fourteen  short  sermons  of  less  than  two  hundred  pages, 
discloses  characteristically  his  vein  and  are  well  worth 
reading.  The  themes  are  timely  and  practical  and  the 
discussion  is  attractive  and  forceful.  They  suggest  the 
spirit  of  the  reformer.  A  critical  tone  runs  through  them 
all.  His  illustrations  are  from  passing  public  events.  His 
theology  is  broad,  ethical,  and  human.  He  discloses 
his  famiHarity  with  current  secular  hterature,  and  citations 
from  a  wide  and  miscellaneous  group  of  masters  abound. 
Carlyle,  Ruskin,  Tyndall,  Matthew  Arnold,  Sir  Edwin 
Arnold,  Shakespeare,  George  EHot,  Mazzini,  Tennyson, 
and  Browning  all  appear.  The  style  is  clear  and  strong. 
Short  sentences  further  the  force  of  the  utterance,  and 
everywhere  we  have  the  mental  objectivity  and  common 
sense  of  the  EngUshman. 

A  man  of  kindred  tastes,  culture,  and  evangelistic  zeal 
is  the  Rev.  Mark  Guy  Pearce.  He  was  a  student  of 
medicine  before  entering  upon  the  work  of  the  ministry, 
and  his  scientific  in  connection  with  his  subsequent  theo- 
logical and  homiletic  training  has  fitted  him  eminently 
for  the  sort  of  work  to  which  he  seems  to  be  called  and  in 
which  he  has  been  engaged  in  various  important  com- 
munities in  England  since  1863.  For  the  last  fifteen 
or  sixteen  years  he  has  been  connected  with  the  West 
London  mission   at   St.   James   Hall,  to  which   he  was 


PREACHING  OF  THE  ENGLISH  FREE  CHURCHES     240 

designated  as  coadjutor  by  Mr.  Hughes,  who  made  Mr. 
Pearce's  acceptance  the  condition  of  his  o\vn  entrance  upon 
that  most  notable  work.  He  is  favorably  kno\\Ti  to  his 
public  as  a  writer  of  stories  and  in  several  volumes  of  ser- 
mons. "The  Christianity  of  Christ,  is  it  ours?"  "Short 
Talks  for  the  Times,"  "the  God  of  our  Pleasures, "  and 
"Christ's  Cure  for  Care"  are  titles  suggestive  of  the  prac- 
tical and  timely  character  of  his  preaching.  As  a  preacher 
he  perpetuates  the  same  general  style  of  aggressive,  ethical, 
popular  address  in  which  his  better  kno\\'n  and  more 
widely  influential  colleague  was  so  effective. 

iii.  Among  the  free  churches,  the  Baptist  communion 
has  always  been  distinguished  by  its  sturdy  individuaUsm 
and  its  theological  and  ecclesiastical  independence,  and 
its  preachers  surpass  all  others  in  uncompromising  hostility 
to  what  they  regard  as  the  arrogant  assumptions,  pre- 
tensions, and  oppressions  of  the  Anglican  church.  It 
has  concentrated  upon  a  few  of  the  great  outsranding 
facts  and  truths  of  BibUcal  religion  which  it  has  regarded 
as  central  and  supreme,  and  with  characteristic  devotion 
and  courage,  according  to  its  understanding  of  them, 
it  has  proclaimed  them.  Its  preaching,  accordingly, 
has  been  notable  for  its  Bibhcal  spirit  and  method.  It 
has  persistently  cultivated  the  evangeHstic  mind,  and  the 
same  evangeUstic  zeal,  missionary  ardor,  evangelical  fer- 
vor, and  devotion  to  the  recognized  rehgious  needs  of  its 
constituencies,  that  marked  its  origin  and  later  develop- 
ment are  still  conspicuous.  Its  esprit  de  corps,  its  stead- 
fast devodon  to  covenant  life,  and  the  close  unity  in 
which  its  communities  are  held  by  the  covenant  bond,  its 
loyalty  to  what  it  regards  as  the  historic  and  Christian 
conception  of  the  sacraments  and  of  the  church,  the  scenic 
impressiveness  of  its  baptismal  service,  its  accurate  knowl- 
edge of  the  people  to  whom  it  appeals,  these  and  other 
pecuKarides  have  secured  for  its  preaching  a  certain  dis- 
tinctive   character.     Its    directness,   forcefulness,  and  in 


250  THE   MODERN  PULPIT 

general  its  popular  quality  are  notable.  As  represented 
by  Mr.  Spurgeon  ^  and  his  followers,  who  have  been  re- 
actionists against  what  they  have  been  pleased  to  call  the 
"down-grade  movement"  of  modern  theological  thought 
and  scholarship,  there  has  Hngered  about  it  a  good  deal 
of  the  old  Calvinistic  dogmatism  and  that  combination  of 
hteraHsm  and  allegorical  fancifulness  in  BibUcal  exposition 
and  application  that  belongs  to  a  former  period.  But  the 
prominent  ministers  of  the  Baptist  Union,  with  which 
Mr.  Spurgeon  and  his  followers  broke,  among  whom  as 
leaders  are  Dr.  Alexander  Maclaren  and  Dr.  John  Chfford, 
are  the  true  representatives  of  the  modern  Baptist  pulpit 
of  England,  in  wliich  many  peculiarities  have  been  tem- 
pered by  the  modern  spirit  of  cathohcity  and  compre- 
hensiveness and  moderated  and  modiiied  by  increasing 
respect  for  good  learning  and  culture.  But  mth  all  of 
Mr.  Spurgeon 's  excesses  and  shortcomings,  no  one  may 
safely  question  the  greatly  and  widely  beneficial  influence, 
within  his  own  communion,  upon  other  free  church 
bodies,  and  even  upon  the  Anglican  church  and  upon  the 
English  pulpit  at  large,  especially  among  the  so-called 
middle  classes  which  he  has  exerted  personally  and  meas- 
urably through  the  "Pastors'  College"  and  other  allied 
institutions  which  he  founded  and  of  which  he  was  the 
inspiring  spirit  and  in  which  though  dead  he  still  speaks. 
The  aim  of  the  "Pastors'  College"  has  been  to  train  effec- 
tive preachers  and  pastors  after  Mr.  Spurgeon's  type. 
No  man  may  be  received  to  its  menibership  who  has  not 
already  tested  his  gifts  and  won  some  success  as  preacher 
and  pastor,  thus  at  the  outset  verifying  his  calling  and 
vindicating  his  right  to  further  training  for  the  pastoral 
ofhce.  The  mark  of  Mr.  Spurgeon's  personality,  with 
all  its  excellencies  and  defects,  is  upon  it.  Any  lack  of 
evangeUcal  faith,  as  he  understood  it,  which  means  the 

'  See     estimate    of    Mr.     Spurgeon     in    "  Representative     Modern 
Preachers,"  Ch.  IX. 


PREACHING  OF  THE  ENGLISH  FREE  CHURCHES      25 1 

faith  once  delivered  to  the  Cahinistic  saints,  or  of  the 
evangelistic  spirit,  and  any  dalHance  with  modem  theo- 
logical or  critical  opinions,  that  are  out  of  harmony  with 
the  creed  of  the  Baptist  churches  as  held  by  him,  are 
frowned  upon  as  mortal  sins.  The  natural  tendency 
of  such  a  regime  would  seem  to  be  to  brand  the  product 
with  the  mark  of  a  monotonous  sameness.  The  speech 
of  men  thus  trained  must  bewray  them,  and  one  easily 
credits  the  judgment  of  one  of  the  ablest  and  most  prom- 
inent of  Enghsh  Baptist  ministers  to  the  effect  that 
in  some  respects  this  school  has  done  about  as  much  harm 
as  good.  But  what  is  lacking  in  independence  of  thought 
is  after  a  fashion  compensated  by  the  culture  of  a  certain 
individuahty  of  manner,  style,  and  method,  which  the 
curriculum  promotes. 

The  men  hve  separately.  There  is  no  close  class  life. 
They  are  trained  in  laborious  study,  according  to  its  kind, 
and  are  encouraged  to  cultivate  the  homiletic  virtue  of 
naturahiess.  Large  numbers  of  men  have  been  sent  out 
from  this  school  who  have  doubtless  done  much  good 
service  for  the  Baptist  churches  and  for  the  cause  of  evan- 
geHcal  rehgion,  and  have  exerted  a  salutary  influence  upon 
the  general  community. 

The  English  Baptist  churches  that  adhere  to  the  doc- 
trine and  practice  of  immersion,  and  that  are  theoretically 
committed  to  ecclesiastical  exclusiveness,  refuse  to  carry 
this  exclusiveness  to  its  logical  issues,  and  in  their  com- 
mittal to  open  communion  have  been  in  advance  of  their 
sister  churches  in  the  United  States.  Mr.  Spurgeon,_with 
all  his  limitations,  was  a  man  so  far  forth  of  catholicity  as 
well  as  independence  of  spirit.  With  this  the  "  Pastors' 
College  "  is  in  sympathy,  and  in  many  cases  it  is  difficult  to 
see  wW  differentiates  the  Baptist  from  the  Congregational 
churches,  or  justifies  their  separate  existence.  But  it 
must  be  said  that  in  its  intolerance  of  the  historical  and 
critical  method  of  dcaUng  with  the  Scriptures,  and  in  gen- 


252  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

eral  in  its  lack  of  respect  for  the  fruits  of  modern  scholar- 
ship and  culture  the  Spurgeon  following  does  not  fairly 
represent  the  Baptist  churches  of  our  day. 

Dr.  Alexander  Maclaren  of  Manchester  is  doubtless 
the  foremost  figure  in  the  ministry  of  the  Baptist  churches 
and  their  most  accompHshed  preacher.  There  are  those 
who  would  call  him  the  most  accomphshed  preacher  in  the 
free  churches.  Dr.  Joseph  Parker  regarded  him  as 
having  no  superior  in  England.  He  has  been  called  the 
"Ruskin"  of  the  English  pulpit,  and  his  preaching  has 
been  characterized  as  "one  of  the  chief  Uterary  influences 
of  Manchester."  He  is  by  birth  a  Scotchman  and  has 
the  Scotch  genius  for  preaching.  Graduated  at  the  early 
age  of  nineteen  from  his  theological  college,  which  was 
afhUated  with  London  University,  he  has  been  in  the 
ministry  for  sixty  years.  Southampton  and  Manchester 
are  the  two  centres  of  his  pastoral  Ufe.  The  year  1845, 
in  which  he  entered  the  ministry,  was  a  notable  one.  It 
was  the  year  of  crisis  in  the  Oxford  Movement,  and  of 
the  Scottish  Church  Disruption.  The  free  churches 
were  stirred  by  the  questions  involved,  and  Dr.  Maclaren 
shared  the  influence,  becoming  one  of  the  strongest  advo- 
cates of  free-church  principles.  He  came  into  close  touch 
with  leaders  in  the  Congregational  churches,  among  them 
Dr.  Binney,  "the  man  who  taught  me  how  to  preach." 
He  began  his  ministry  with  ihe  purpose  to  concentrate 
his  strength  upon  the  work  of  the  pulpit,  holding  that 
"the  secret  of  success  for  all  our  ministers  is  very  largely 
in  the  simple  charm  of  concentrating  their  intellectual 
force  on  the  work  of  preaching."^  He  has  been  a  most 
diligent  student  and  his  intellectual  productiveness^  is 
attested  in  the  large  number  of  volumes  issued  by  him. 
Among  his  volumes  of  sermons,  a  considerable  number  of 
which  are  of  the  expository  type,  is  "The  Concjuering 
Christ  and  other  Sermons,"  issued  in  the  series  entitled 

*  Alexander  Maclaren,  "  The  Man  and  his  Message,"  108. 


PREACHING  OF  THE  ENGLISH  FREE  CHURCHES     253 

"Preachers  of  the  Age."  The  Biblical  quality  of  the 
discourses  is  evident  at  once,  although  they  are  not  in  the 
technical  sense  expository.  He  has  from  the  first  been  a 
conscientious  and  laborious  student  of  the  Bible,  and  his 
critical  knowledge  of  the  Hebrew  and  EngHsh  Old  Testa- 
ment appears  in  his  expository  work.  His  skill  in  verbal 
analysis  contributes  a  suggestive  quality  to  his  preaching 
and  illustrates  the  value  of  a  philological  study  of  the 
New  Testament  with  the  aid  of  such  wTiters  as  Wiener, 
Buttman,  Cremer,  and  Alford.  His  use  of  BibHcal 
material  both  in  exposition  and  apphcation  is  judicious. 
His  apprehension  of  the  typical  and  analogical  principle 
in  Biblical  interpretation  reminds  us  of  Tholuck.  He 
rarely  uses  his  text  in  the  way  of  accommodation  and  he 
recognizes  the  distinction  between  metaphorical  and 
argumentative  analogy.  Dr.  John  Brown,  in  his  "  Puritan 
Preachers,"  lays  accent,  and  justly,  upon  the  evangehcal 
quality  in  Dr.  Maclaren's  preaching.  He  was  early 
impressed  by  the  Augustinian  theology,  and  his  recognition 
of  sin,  atonement,  and  the  incarnation,  as  central  realities 
with  which  the  preacher  must  deal,  is  evident.  He  con- 
ceives it  to  be  his  duty  to  deal  with  the  indi\ddual  heart 
and  conscience  and  to  devote  himself  to  the  renewal  and 
edification  of  manhood.  He  lays  accent  upon  a  life  of 
reflection  and  of  communion  with  Christ  in  religious 
experience  and  culture  and  dreads  the  lack  thereof  in  the 
"whipped-up  activity"  of  our  age.  Hence  he  has  but 
little  to  do  with  so-called  social  questions.  "There 
must  be  individual  Christianity  before  there  can  be  social. 
It  must  be  possessed  before  it  can  be  appHed."  Yet  he 
recognizes  the  significance  of  social  ethics  and  his  church 
is  well  organized  for  useful  work.  But  his  evangehcalism 
is  rational  and  he  shares  the  modem  cathoHcity  of  spirit. 
His  church  is  organized  upon  a  simple  basis.  Faith  in 
Christ  and  Scriptural  baptism  are  the  only  conditions  of 
membership.     That  theology  should  be  "Christ  centred," 


254  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

that  we  should  return  to  the  Gospels,  that  there  should  be 
less  doctrine  and  more  person,  that  the  regal  functions  of 
Christ  should  receive  stronger  emphasis,  that  metaphysics 
should  be  ehminated  from  theology,  that  progress  in 
revelation  should  be  recognized,  and  that  in  the  hght 
of  it  we  should  fmd  the  Bible  greatly  enriched,  —  these 
are  some  of  the  views  that  show  the  modernity  and 
rationahty  of  his  evangelicahsm.  His  thought  has  sohd 
substance  and  moves  high  up  in  the  altitudes  of  religion 
and  theology,  but  is  always  translated  into  popular  speech. 
'It  combines  admirably  the  Bibhcal  and  the  experi- 
mental, the  objective  and  the  subjective  quahties.  His 
method  is  orderly  in  an  eminent  degree.  His  topics,  which 
•are  largely  Bibhcal,  stand  out  as  road  marks  to  point  the 
I  way  of  the  journey.  His  jiterary  tastes  were  early  culti- 
ivated,  and  writers  Hke  Emerson,  Carlylc,  and  Ruskin 
were  from  the  first  tributary  to  the  nurture  of  his  Hterary 
impulses.  His.diction  is  dignified,  accurate,  often  elegant, 
but  not  lacking  in  the  force  of  aphoristic  utterance  nor 
in  a  sometimes  Carlylean  energy  of  vocabulary.  His 
illustrations  are  not  numerous,  but  are  from  various 
sources,  and  are  exceptionally  exact  and  pertinent.  Paul's 
literary  style  is  appositely  hkened  to  the  "fiower-hke  deco- 
rations which  encrust  the  firm  framework  of  the  upper 
spire  of  Antwerp  Cathedral.  They  hide  but  do  not 
weaken  the  direct  upward  spring  of  the  rigid  metal." 
His  ^rmons  are  only  in  part  written  and  are  appropri- 
ately aricT  judiciously  modem  as  to  length.  His  dchveix 
is  said  to  be  dehberate  and  self-poised.  There  is  iDuTlIttle 
action,  although  there  is  a  suggestion  of  subdued  intensity, 
and  his  voice  in  its  melody  suggests  his  Scottish  ancestry. 
He  is  the  preacher's  preacher,  who  incorporates  the  best 
of  other  days  and  illustrates  the  possibihties  of  the  pulpit 
in  a  superficial  age. 

Dr.  John  Clifford  of  London  is  not  less  earnest  than 
Dr.  Maclaren  in  his  advocacy  of  an  educated  and  cultivated 


PREACHING  OF  THE  ExMGLISH  FREE  CHURCHES    255 

ministry,  but  represents  more  fully  modern  broad  church- 
manship,  and  the  aggressiveness  of  modern  church 
leadership.  The  limitations  of  his  early  life,  which  made 
it  necessary  for  him  to  leave  school  at  eleven  years  of  age 
and  to  give  himself  with  his  father  to  hard  manual  labor 
in  a  factory,  resulted  in  experiences  that  have  intensified 
his  interest  in  and  sympathy  for  the  working  classes 
and  the  so-called  common  people,  and  have  won  practical 
resources  that  have  proved  to  be  of  much  service  in  his 
church  leadership.  His  early  education  was,  Hke  that  of 
Dr.  Binney,  "picked  up."  Entering  the  Christian  hfe 
at  the  age  of  fourteen,  he  felt  himself  dra\Mi  toward 
the  ministry.  Like  Spurgeon  he  began  to  preach  at  the 
age  of  sixteen,  and  was  hcensed  by  his  home  church  while 
yet  without  academic  or  professional  education.  Graduat- 
ing from  the  theological  college  at  the  age  of  twenty-two,- 
he  accepted  a  call  from  what  is  now  kno\Mi  as  the  West- 
bourne  Park  Baptist  Church  of  London,  of  which  he  has 
been  pastor  for  forty-seven  years.  Before  entering  fully 
upon  his  pastoral  duties,  however,  he  took  the  full  academic 
course  at  London  University  and  later  on  took  the  degree 
of  its  law  department.  Thus,  notwithstanding  his  early 
hmitations,  he  is  a  man  thoroughly  equipped  for  his 
important  work.  Among  the  ministers  of  his  church 
he  is  distinctly  the  broad  churchman.  In  admission  of 
members  to  his  church  he  leaves  the  mode  of  baptism 
wholly  to  the  individual  conscience.  He  is  an  advocate 
of  the  domestic  conception  of  the  church,  consecrating 
the  children  of  his  congregation  and  accepting  a  covenant 
discipleship  as  sole  condition  of  church  membership.  He 
is  opposed  to  all  testing  creeds,  and  in  the  "Do\mi  Grade" 
controversy  antagonized  Mr.  Spurgeon,  who  would  impose 
such  a  creed  upon  the  Baptist  Union.  He  is  a  broad 
theologian.  His  conception  of  the  Bible  is  modem. 
Its  authority  is  in  the  truth  that  finds  response  within 
us,  and  here  lies  its  power.     His  view  of  the  atonement 


256  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

is  nearer  to  that  of  Robertson  than  to  that  of  Dale.  Unita- 
rian influences  apparently  have  modified  his  views,  but  the 
devoutness  of  his  piety  has  never  been  compromised  and 
he  has  held  his  place  in  the  evangehcal  churches.  His 
chief  significance  is  in  his  practical  leadership.  He  is 
intensely  democratic  and  beUeves  profoundly  in  a  dem- 
ocratic church.  His  o^vn  church  is  largely  institutional. 
His  philanthropies  are  wide  reaching.  He  is  the  fighting 
Hberal  of  his  church,  holding  much  the  same  place  that 
Dr.  Dale  held  among  the  Congregationalists.  In  all  co- 
operative movements  in  the  free  churches  he  is  prominent 
and  preeminent.  He  has  been  called  the  hero  of  non- 
conformity, antagonizing  with  a  superb  courage  and  skill 
the  educational  bill  of  the  EngHsh  government.  He  works 
with  intensity  and  concentration  and  in  all  his  multi- 
farious activities  he  finds  time  to  keep  himself  in  touch 
with  the  best  modem  BibHcal  and  hterary  culture.  He 
has  published  several  volumes  of  sermons.  Among  these 
"Daily  Strength  for  Daily  Living,"  "Christian  Certain- 
ties," ""The  Secret  of  Jesus,"  "Is  Life  Worth  Living?" 
In  early  life  he  came  into  contact  with  Emerson,  and 
Emerson  has  remained  a  life  influence.  He  early  culti- 
vated his  gift  of  speech  by  constant  practice,  vocaUzing 
his  thoughts  in  his  walks  and  speaking  Hke  Demosthenes 
into  the  air.  He  has  been  a  preacher  for  more  than  fifty- 
three  years,  and  still  bears  the  marks  of  youthful  enthu- 
siasm. He  affects  the  New  Testament  in  his  choice  of 
texts,  has  special  preference  for  Paul,  and  is  especially 
facile  in  biographical  sermons.  He  cites  copiously  a 
great  variety  of  authors,  storing  material  judiciously,  and 
by  thus  utilizing  his  resources  insures  pertinence  and 
freshness  and  vivacity  to  his  discourses.  He  works 
slowly,  writes  with  care,  arranges  his  material  in  lucid 
order,  but  takes  only  an  abstract  into  the  pulpit  and  never 
memorizes.  His  style  has  been  criticised  as  rough  and 
uncomely.       But  his   power  as   a    pulpit  and  platform 


PREACHING  OF  THE  ENGLISH  FREE  CHURCHES    257 

orator  and  his  notable  success  in  carrying  the  case  in 
hand  with  his  audience,  testifies  abundantly  to  his  incon- 
testable forcefulness. 

iv.  EngUsh  Congregationahsm  furnishes  an  interesting 
and  valuable  field  for  the  student  of  modem  preaching. 
Among  the  free  churches  it  stands  preeminent  as  an  intel- 
lectual, reHgious,  moral,  and,  after  a  sort,  political  force  in 
the  Hfe  of  the  middle  classes.  Respect  for  an  intelHgent 
piety  and  for  the  knowledge  and  discipline  that  are  tribu- 
tary to  it,  responsiveness  to  new  Hght,  whether  from  science 
or  revelation,  allegiance  to  ecclesiastical  and  civil  Hberty, 
zeal  for  civic  righteousness,  and  devotion  to  a  Christianity 
that  adjusts  itself  to  all  the  practical  needs  of  men,  com- 
bined with  evangeHstic  and  missionary  ardor,  have  always 
been  and  still  are  preeminently  characteristic  of  this  in 
many  respects  most  Puritan  of  EngUsh  Puritan  commun- 
ions. In  these  respects  it  is  in  general  harmony  with  the 
Congregationahsm  of  the  United  States.  But  it  must 
be  acknowledged  that  one  finds  in  it  a  somewhat  more 
earnest  religious  and  evangehcal  tone  and  a  somewhat 
larger  and  more  aggressive  ecclesiartical  enterprise.  In 
his  biographical  sketch  of  Dr.  Binney,  Dr.  Allon,  speaking 
of  the  nonconformist  minister,  notes  the  fact  "  that  he  must 
win  his  way  and  sustain  his  services  by  dint  of  sheer 
intellectual  and  moral  force,"  which  was  eminently  true 
of  Dr.  Binney,  and  that  "his  very  position  as  a  noncon- 
formist excludes  adventitious  acts  of  official  sanction  and 
occasion."  *  In  so  far  as  the  sphere  of  his  activity  hes 
among  the  more  inteUigent  and  prosperous  nonconformist 
communities,  what  Dr.  Allon  affirms,  is  especially  true  of 
the  Congregational  preacher.  It  is  to  be  noted  also  that 
training  in  the  sphere  of  hfe,  as  distinguished  from  that  of 
the  schools,  conditions,  a  greater  practical  effectiveness 
than  is  reahzed  by  the  confessedly  better  academically 
educated  Anghcan  preacher.     It  was  Dr.  Dale's  opinion, 

^  Bianey's  "  Sermons,"  2d  series,  14. 


^^^' 


258  THE   MODERN    PULPIT 

rather  vigorously  expressed,  that  the  intellectual  Hfe  of 
nonconformists  had  been  impoverished  by  their  "  exclusion 
from  the  Universities  and  from  all  participation  in  the 
governing  and  teaching  of  the  best  schools  of  the  coun- 
try,"  and  he  even  ventured  the  assertion  that  they  "had 
been  brought  to  undervalue  and  to  disparage  the  learning 
that  had  been  the  pride  of  their  forefathers."  '  He  also 
lamented  the  decHne  of  doctrinal  preaching  in  the  Con- 
gregational churches.  It  was  his  belief  that  the  religious 
Hfe  of  the  members  of  these  churches  "  suffers  in  depth 
and  force,"  because  they  were  "unwilling  to  do  anything 
for  the  maintenance  of  that  reUgious  life  that  requires  the 
use  of  the  understanding."  ^  It  seemed  to  him  that  "the 
vagueness  of  thought  which  prevails  among  intelHgent 
people  is  a  serious  injury  to  the  vigor  of  their  rehgious 
life."  ^  That  he  sought  to  counteract  this  defect  in  his 
own  preaching  is  evident,  for  he  was  perhaps  in  his  day 
the  most  robust  theological  thinker  and  the  most  dis- 
tinctively doctrinal  preacher  of  Enghsh  nonconformity. 
He  expressed  very  positively  the  opinion  that  it  must  ever 
be  the  special  mission  of  Congregationahsm  to  further  the 
interests  of  an  intelHgent  piety  and  to  meet  the  needs  of 
the  more  intellectual  class  in  nonconforming  communities. 
He  was  apparently  willing  that  other  communions  should 
devote  themselves  to  the  rehgious  interests  of  the  less 
inteUigent  and  educated  classes,  for  which,  as  he  beHeved, 
they  were  better  fitted.^  The  same  conception  of  the 
mission  of  American  Congregationahsm  has  not  infre- 
quently been  expressed,  and  there  is  some  measure  of 
justification  for  it.  But  the  one-sidedness  of  the  estimate 
and  the  forgetfuhiess  of  the  unblessed  classes  involved 
in  it  is  a  discredit  to  the  cathohcity  of  its  Christianity 
and  a  dishonor  to  the  comprehensiveness  of  its  mission. 
Dr.  Dale  was  somewhat  severely  criticised,  and  perhaps 

»"  Dale's  Life,"  284.       ^  Ibid.,  661.       *  Ibid.,  670.      *  Ibid.,  613-614. 


PREACHING  OF  THE  ENGLISH  FREE  CHURCHES      259 

on  the  whole  with  a  measure  of  justice,  for  this   expres- 
sion of  opinion,  and  he  needs  to  be  interpreted  gener- 
ously.    The    Congregational  churches  of    England  have 
doubtless   in    many    ways   manifested    a    new  sense   of 
devotion  to  the  unblessed  classes,  which  is  greatly  to  their 
credit,  but  one  may  venture  to  question  whether  on  the 
whole  there  has  been  any  serious  loss  in  the  intellectual 
fibre   of   their   preaching,    although    confessedly   it   may 
have    imdergone    a    very    decided    modification.     The 
American  preacher  does  not  discover  in  the  best  type 
of  English  Congregational  preaching  any  serious  loss  of 
intellectual  Ufe.     But  he  does  discover  a  better  combina- 
tion of  intellectual  and  spiritual  elements  than  he  finds  in 
the    preaching   of   American    CongregationaHsm.     There 
has  doubtless  been  in  both  EngUsh  and  American  Con- 
gregationaHsm   a    modification    in    the   estimate   of   the 
importance    and    value    of   the   distinctively    intellectual 
aspect     of     religion.       But    this    does    not    necessarily 
involve  a  deterioration  in   the    intellectual    fibre  of  the 
preacher.    It  is,  in  fact,  a  decided  gain.     At  any  rate, 
as  illustrated  by  the  most  prominent  representatives  of 
the  modem  EngHsh  Congregational  pulpit,  by  such  men, 
for    example,    as    Dr.    Fairbaim    of    Mansfield    College, 
who  in  his  philosophic  grip  of  truth  and  in  the  rhetorical 
forcefukiess  and  attractiveness  of  his  presentation  is  not 
less  skilful  as  preacher  than  as  teacher,  or  Dr.  Guinness 
Rogers,  Dale's  lifelong  friend,  comrade  in  the  campaign 
against    the    estabhshment,   colleague    and    successor   in 
the   editorship   of    the   Congrcgationalist,  whose    intellec- 
tual insight,  balance  of  judgment,  and  excellence  of  Uterary 
form  are   equally  manifest  in   the   written   and   spoken 
word,  or  Dr.   Joseph  Parker,  most   briUiant  of   rhetori- 
cians, who,  in  preaching,  has  restored  the  homily  to  a  place 
of  dignity  and  power  and  by  his  genius  has  made  attrac- 
tive Biblical  truth  to  popular  audiences  in  the  heart  of 
the  great  metropohs,  or  Principal  Reynolds  of  Chesunt 


260  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

College,  whose  volume  of  meditations,  "Light  and  Peace," 
in  "Preachers  of  the  Age,"  illustrates  the  skill  of  the  non- 
conformist teacher  in  presenting  the  truth  from  the  pulpit, 
to  educated  young  men,  —  as  illustrated  by  such  and  by 
many  others  who  belong  to  their  generation  no  such  lack 
is  evident  and  no  inferiority  to  the  preaching  of  the  Con- 
gregational churches  of  the  United  States  is  apparent. 
In  its  combination  of  mental,  spiritual,  emotional,  hterary, 
ethical,  and  evangeHstic  elements  it  may  be  questioned 
whether  on  the  whole  it  has  not  the  advantage.  And 
there  are  those  of  a  younger  generation  who  are  illustrat- 
ing the  modem  Puritanism  of  EngUsh  CongregationaHsm, 
and  in  whom  we  find  that  combination,  in  good  measure 
and  judicious  form,  of  the  conservative  and  progressive 
spirit,  that  respect  for  good  learning,  sound  culture, 
substantial,  intelligent,  religious  character,  devout  piety, 
practical  philanthropy,  that  hterary  freshness,  and  fineness 
of  touch,  that  unelaborate  suggestiveness,  that  com- 
bination of  the  reflective,  the  philosophical,  and  the 
practical,  that  pithy  directness  and  unconventionaHty, 
that  freedom  from  external  and  artificial  rhetorical  and 
homiletic  restraints  associated  with  devotion  to  evangehcal 
truth  and  culture  of  evangelistic  fervor,  —  which  belong  to 
the  best  type  of  Enghsh  pubhc  speech,  and  which  are 
securing  for  CongregationaUsm  an  increasingly  com- 
manding influence  among  the  EngUsh  churches. 

But  these  are  three  men  who,  in  a  special  way,  mark 
the  initiative  in  important  doctrinal,  hturgical,  practical, 
and  homiletic  changes  in  modem  English  Congregational- 
ism. 'They  engrafted  upon  the  objective  elements  of 
Puritan  theology  those  subjective  qualities  that  are  the 
special  possession  of  our  time  and  which  forced  a  break 
with  Calvinism.  They  and  their  successors  have  defended 
Christianity  with  new  weapons.  They  have  greatly 
enriched  the  worship  of  their  churches.  Under  a  new 
literary  impulse  they  have  changed    the  form  of    their 


TREACHIN(iCOr7TH^NGl3|8»iFREE. CHURCHES  .^^. 

message  and 'they-  have' carried  their  religion  far  out:ihto 
the  sphere  of  : practical  life.-  They  illustrate  the  value 
of  the  long 'pastorate,  which  is  more  common  in  English 
than  in  American  CongregationaHsm.  And  we  note  in 
them  not  only  the  staying  quahty  of  Enghsh  Congregational 
preachers,  and  in  their  churches  the  soHdity,  sobriety, 
and  conservative  habit  of  the  English  Congregational 
laity,  but  we  see  the  strength  of  influence  that  is  possible 
for  the  long  pastorate  not  only  in  the  local  community, 
but  in  the  whole  body  of  churches,  and  in  so  far  they  are  a 
rebuke  to  the  restlessness  and  superficiality  of  American 
church  life. 

Dr.  Thomas  Binney,  for  forty  years  pastor  of  King's 
Weigh-House  Chapel,  London,  was  in  some  large  sense 
the  father  of  modem  English  Congregationalism.  He 
was  universally  recognized  as  "a  great  personality," 
and  it  is  conceded  not  only  that  he  "helped  more  than 
any  other  man  to  modify  the  traditional  methods  and 
st}4e  of  preaching  among  nonconformists,"  but  that 
"he  represented  a  movement,  a  departure  from  the  tenets 
of  conventional  orthodoxy."  ^  In  early  years,  Dale  was 
a  great  admirer  of  him  and,  like  many  another,  caught 
from  him  a  new  inspiration.  He  calls  Binney  "magnifi- 
cent," which  suggests  a  certain  stateliness,  dignity,  and 
strength,  not,  however,  disassociated  with  naturalness  and 
spontaneous  force.  But  at  the  same  time  he  hits  upon  one 
of  his  defects,  "There  is  no  dependence  to  be  placed  upon 
him."  With  rhetorical  exaggeration  this  suggests  the 
inequality  of  his  preaching.  He  was  not  always  at  his 
best.  He  needed  a  great  occasion.  This  unreliableness 
was  due,  according  to  Dr.  Allon,  to  lack  of  early  intellec- 
tual training.^  He  was  a  man  of  extraordinary  native 
intellectual  force,  and  not  without  distinct  aesthetic 
gifts,    which   in   an   independent   way   were   assiduously 

*  "  Dale's  Life,"  49-50. 

'  "  King's  Weigh-House  Chapel  Sermons,"  2d  series,  xvi. 


THElTVI 


liPiT^o^iH'jA'aj^^; 


icultiva^.  But  he  was  af>^-calledr,^elfsraade  man,  and 
disclosed  the  lack  of  ,w;^ll-based.ahd  firnily  established 
intellectual  habits.  Yet,  trained  in  the  sphere  of  common 
.sense  and  common  life,  diligentin  his  devotion  to  what 
was  native' -to  .him  and  to  what  he  regarded  as  most  profit- 
able, he  attained  to  a  greater  forcefuLness  and  to  greater 
influence  than  most  men  who  have  won  the  graces  of 
academic  culture.  He  was  a  strong  thinker,  at  home  in 
theological  questions,  a  man  of  no  ordinary  literary 
culture,  of  high  liturgical  ideals,  and  of  oratorical  power. 
One  suspects  that  the  two  series  of  King's  Weigh-House 
Chapel  Sermons  do  not  in  the  reading  adequately  disclose 
his  power  as  a  preacher.  Some  of  the  qualities  that  have 
been  ascribed  to  him  do  not  appear  here  at  least  obtru- 
sively. One  recognizes  an  English  solidity  of  thought 
and  a  statehness  of  movement  that  indicate  the  careful 
thinker  and  the  serious-minded  teacher.  But  the  subjects 
discussed  are  approached  with  undue  dehberation,  and 
the  development  is  overelaborate  for  the  tastes  of  our  time, 
and  in  the  length  of  the  sermon  he  follows  the  traditions 
of  an  earher  day.  The  diction  is  elevated  and  dignified. 
The  sentences  are  long  and  involved,  abounding  in  qualify- 
ing clauses  for  the  purpose  of  clear  and  careful  discrimina- 
.tion,  and  consequently  there  is  a  lack  of  vivacity  and 
rapidity  of  movement.  But  the  intellectual  strength 
of  the  preacher,  his  sturdy  moral  earnestness,  his  pastoral 
sympathy,  his  cvangeHcal  ardor,  vdth  an  occasional 
imaginative  touch  and  the  suggestion  of  patient  literary 
culture,  one  will  not  fail  to  detect.  The  discourses  are 
largely  textual,  and  their  clearness  of  outline  is  furthered 
not  only  by  the  prevalence  of  textual  topics,  but  by  their 
preannouncement  and  restatement  in  process.  In  true 
Puritan  fashion  he  grapples  with  large  and  important 
subjects  and  discusses  them  with  Puritan  amplitude. 
Massive  thought,  breadth  of  treatment,  and  stately  diction 
are  the  notes  of  power. 


-^^ 

9 


Caching' ©ftEHEJENGLiSH  free  churches  263 

'*^rjHem^)Afibii,  for  many  years  pastor  of  Union  Chapel, 
Islington,  crslmmi  ^^-ith   Binney  and    Dale    their   respect 
for  the- intellectual  elements  in  reHgion  and  for  doctrinal 
Christianity.     But  with   them  he   too   laid  chief  accent 
upon  the  moral  aspects  of  Christian  truth  and  was  an 
antagonist  of  the  Calvinism  of  earlier  CongregationaUsm. 
With  him,  as  with  them  all,  the  teachings  of  Christianity 
are  ethical  and  the  end  of  doctrine  is  Ufe.     Chnstiamty 
appeals  to  what  is  ethically  and  ideally  best  in  man, 
and  because  it  finds  his  best  it  has  stood  and  will  stand. 
No  religion  can  rest  upon  a  basis  of  mere  external  authonty. 
Acceptance  of  it  on  such  a  basis  no  more  makes  a  man 
rehgious   than   acceptance   of   the   binomial   theorem  on 
the  authority  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton  makes  a  man  a  mathe- 
matician.'    His  estimate  of  the  reaUty  of  sin  and  its  relation 
to  the  moral  government  of   God,   which,   with  all  the 
preachers  of  his  school,  holds  a  prominent  place  in  his 
theological  thought,  conditioned  definitely  his  conception 
of  redemption,  which  undertook  to  harmonize  the  objec- 
tive and    subjective    factors.     He  was    less   distinctively 
than  Dale  a  doctrinal  preacher,  deaHng  more  exclusively 
with  the  practical  aspects  of  truth.     But  his  statements 
of  the  great  verities  of  doctrinal  Christianity  are  clear 
and  strong  and  somewhat  elaborate,  and  while  he  may 
sometimes  seem  to  read  too  much  into  his  subject,  and  to 
find  more  in  historic  facts  than  he  is  justified  in  doing,  he 
is  nevertheless  a  valuable  apologist.     He  was  a  man  of 
finer  and  more  Hberal  culture  than  Binney  and  one  finds 
in  him  a  somewhat  more  refined  and  gentle  spirit  than  in 
Dale,  and  in  aesthetic   endowment  he  was  the  superior 
of   them  both.      He  was  a   man   of   eminent    liturgical 
spirit  and  culture,  an  advocate  of  Hturgical  enrichment 
for  the   Congregational  churches,  and  contributed  much 
in  this  behalf.     He  had  an  expert   knowledge  of   some 

>  See  "  Lectures  delivered  under  the  Auspices  of  the  Christian  Evi- 
dence Society,"  1872-1873. 


^.'^^mf^f!!^  -^\-: 


"  264     -  THE  MODERN 'PULPrtli 

branches  of  liturgies  and  bekeved  more  fuI15!'''.timnimost.of 
his  contemporaries  in  the  retention  of  some'  permanent 
forms  in  Congregational  worship.  His  significance  in 
theology  and  hterature  secured  for  him,  with  Principal 
Reynolds,  the  joint  editorship  of  the  British  Quarterly. 
The  "Vision  of  God  and  other  Sermons"  contains  Some 
of  his  occasional  discourses,  and  they  are  characterized 
by  something  the  same  elaborateness  and  fulness  of 
treatment,  the  same  sojimd  and  well-balanced,  practical 
judgment,  and  the  same  exceptional  clearness  of  outline 
that  we  find  in  the  discourses  of  other  men  of  his  school. 
But  the  style  is  more  distinctively  illustrative,  and  the 
diction,  although  characterized  by  certain  questionable 
pecuUarities  in  the  use  of  adjectives,  is  on  the  whole  more 
chaste  and  more  vivacious. 

Dr.  R.  W.  Dale  of  Birmingham  was  in  his  generation 
perhaps  the  most  robust,  forceful,  and  influential  person- 
ahty  connected  with  the  ministry  of  the  nonconforming 
churches.  He  was  a  man  of  extraordinary  intellectual 
endowments  and  of  eager  intellectual  activities,  with  a 
passion  for  hterary  expression  early  developed  and  culti- 
vated, which  expressed  itself  in  the  pubhcation  of  a  book 
at  the  age  of  sixteen.  In  theology,  for  which  he  had  a 
marked  aptitude,  he  was  responsive,  not  only  to  the  Puritan 
divines  of  a  past  age,  but  to  the  best  thinkers  of  his  own 
day.  The  influence  of  Binney  in  shaping  his  concepdon  of 
the  preacher's  work  is  evident,  and  it  is  possible  that  his 
admiration  for  Edmund  Burke  may  have  been  tributary 
to  the  awakening  within  him  of  the  oratorical  impulse, 
and  to  the  shaping  of  its  expression.  In  the  statehness  of 
his  style,  of  which  he  became  definitely  conscious,  it  is 
possible  that  one  may  detect  the  object  of  his  early  admira- 
tion. Like  so  many  of  the  nonconformist  preachers,  he 
began  to  preach  at  an  early  age,  according  to  his  native 
bent,  attacking  big  subjects. and  at  first  along  Calvinistic 
lines.     At  the  outset,  he  was  rather  a  free  lance  in  his 


PREACHING  OF  THE  ENGLISH  FREE  CHURCHES    265 

intellectual  methods,  following  his  native  instincts  and 
impulses,  but  later  on  he  subjected  himself  rigidly  to  the 
curriculum  of  the  theological  college,  and  his  aspiration 
for  close  and  rigid  intellectual  training  uttered  itself 
in  his  complaint  that  he  had  never  fully  attained  to  "a 
despotic  control  over  all  the  intellectual  faculties."  In 
his  examination  for  the  master's  degree  at  London  Univer- 
sity, he  was  first  in  philosophy  and  already  manifested  his 
speculative  bent,  and  that  somewhat  dogmatic  and  polem- 
ical temper  by  which  after  a  sort  he  was  always  character- 
ized. He  was  introduced  to  pubhc  life  in  a  stormy 
period.  Questions  theological,  ecclesiastical,  poHtical, 
and  social,  that  stirred  all  the  churches  of  England,  had 
been  set  in  discussion  by  the  liberaUsm  and  the  reaction- 
ary Oxford  movement  of  the  day.  Theological  opinions 
were  already  in  process  of  modification,  and  Dale  was 
early  regarded  as  a  Httle  shaky  in  his  beUefs  and  created 
no  little  stir,  as  the  colleague  of  the  devout  John  Angell 
James,  by  an  attack  on  some  of  the  tenets  of  Calvinism, 
such  as  the  atonement,  future  punishment,  and  human 
depra\'ity.  Strong  in  ethical  qualities  and  of  an  evange- 
Hstic  mind,  it  was  still  in  a  sort  the  intellectual  aspect  of 
rehgion  that  soHcited  his  special  interest.  "Doctrinal 
preaching,"  he  says,  "is  the  kind  of  preaching  which  I 
must  approve,  which  is  most  natural  to  me,  for  which 
I  am  conscious  I  have  the  greatest  adaption."^  "His 
grasp  of  principles,"  says  his  biographer,  "was  firm,  his 
vision  clear,  and  he  always  struck  at  the  centre."^  This 
is  the  equipment  of  the  genuine  dogmatician.  Whatever 
the  influences  that  reached  him,  whether  the  questionings 
of  the  early  catechetical  class,  or  the  fellowship  of  robust 
minds,  or  the  theological  problems  that  were  in  pubhc 
agitation,  or  the  larger  problems  of  Ufe  with  which  he 
was  brought  into  intellectual  commerce,  all  were  tributary 
to  his  bent,  and  he  became  the  most  accomplished  doctrinal 

'  "Life,"  123.  '  Ibid.,  126. 


266  THE   MODERN  PULPIT     *  ^jfe 

and  apologetic  preacher  of  his  day  in  the  free  churches. 
It  will  be  in  vain  that  we  look  for  another  who  was  like 
him  or  his  equal  in  this  line  among  the  Congregational 
preachers  of  his  period  on  either  side  of  the  ocean.  Profes- 
sor Park  of  Andover,  the  most  masterful  doctrinal  preacher 
of  an  earHer  period,  was  nearest  his  measure,  but  different 
in  type.  Dr.  George  A.  Gordon  of  Boston  in  our  own 
day  is  perhaps  nearest  to  him  in  readiness  and  clearness 
of  vision,  and  in  breadth  and  strength  of  intellectual 
grasp,  although  in  no  such  sort  a  doctrinal  or  apologetic 
preacher.  Tlie  subjects  which  he  chose  for  discussion 
were  from  the  first  by  preference  of  a  theological  character. 
In  his  expository  preaching,  of  which  in  his  own  way  he 
was  a  master,  as  illustrated  by  the  Lectures  on  the  Ephesian 
letter,  he  always  grappled  with  the  main  thoughts  and 
turned  the  doctrinal  matter  into  relation  with  questions 
critical,  scientific,  educational,  philosophical,  and  theologi- 
cal that  were  in  agitation  about  him.  All  the  works  on 
religious  subjects  published  by  him,  which,  for  so  busy  a 
man,  are  very  numerous,  bear  the  same  general  mark  of 
a  theological  mind.  He  was  a  supematuralist  of  high 
degree,  holding,  as  some  would  say,  somewhat  extreme 
views.  The  reality  of  "the  living  Christ,"  which  in  the 
early  part  of  his  ministry  came  to  him  as  a  new  revelation, 
affected  his  entire  ministerial  life.  His  conception  of  sin, 
a  product  of  his  Puritan  culture,  and  his  sense  of  it,  a 
product  of  his  own  personal  experience  under  the  influence 
of  such  culture,  took  connection  with  his  exalted  concep- 
tion of  the  holy  and  righteous  kingship  of  God  and  the 
integrity  of  his  moral  government,  and  conditioned  his 
conception  of  the  atonement,  which,  with  the  incarnation, 
he  held  to  be  the  central  fact  and  truth  of  Christianity,  and 
which  was  a  modified  form  of  the  governmental  theory, 
embracing  the  objective  factor,  which  is  the  Puritan  con- 
tribution, and  the  subjective  factor,  which  allies  itself 
with  the  conception  of  Christ's  identification,  in  His  holy 


PREACHING  OF  THE  ENGLISH  FREE  CHURCHES    267 

person,  with  redeemed  humanity,  —  and  is  in  line  with  the 
so-called  moral  influence  theory.  "If  I  had  to  write  the 
lectures  (on  the  atonement)  again,"  he  says,  "I  should 
endeavor  to  insist  more  earnestly  on  the  necessity  of  reach- 
ing the  objective  aspect  of  the  death  of  Christ  through  the 
subjective,  i.e.  the  view  that  the  blood  of  Christ  avails 
objectively  for  the  remission  of  sin,  because  of  that  mystical 
relation  between  Christ  and  Humanity  which  is  reahzed 
in  the  church."  ^ 

But  Dr.  Dale  was  also  an  ethical  preacher  of  the  highest 
order.  It  is  true  that  in  the  estimate  of  some  he  "ranked 
higher  as  a  teacher  than  as  a  preacher  of  the  truth,"  and 
in  the  latter  years  of  Hfe  he  reproached  himself  because  he 
had  supreme  interest  in  the  truth  and  too  httle  love  for  men. 
He  recognized  the  "statehness"  of  his  style  and  his  lack 
of  pathos,  and  his  undervaluation  of  those  popular  rhe- 
torical quahties  that  are  essential  to  persuasiveness.  He 
lamented  this  as  Umiting  the  ethical  forcefulness  of  his  mes- 
sage. It  is  true  that  he  was  preeminent  as  a  pulpit  teacher. 
He  was  eminently  successful  as  a  lecturer  upon  Homiletics 
and  Enghsh  Literature  at  his  own  theological  college,  and 
was  urged,  upon  the  ground  of  his  exceptional  fitness,  to 
take  the  chair  of  Dogmatics  in  another  college.  But  this 
self-reproach  was  an  exaggeration  of  his  moral  sensitive- 
ness. His  bent  was  distinctly  ethical.  It  is  perfectly 
evident  that  with  him  doctrine  was  not  an  end  but  an 
instrument.  He  turned  all  his  teaching  toward  practical 
issues,  and  he  is  a  notable  exempUfication  of  the  fact  that 
a  fundamental  theological  thinker,  who  is  profoundly 
interested  and  thoroughly  versed  in  his  science,  may  be, 
in  his  handling  of  theological  questions,  one  of  the  most 
practical  of  men.  In  his  student  days  he  was  impressed 
and  influenced  by  the  strong  ethical  preaching  to  which  he 
listened  in  Birmingham,  and  when  he  entered  upon  his 
o\Mi  ministry  he  threw  himself  at  once  into  the  advocacy 

^  "  Life,"  490-492. 


268  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

of  the  moral  aspects  of  religious  truth.  He  championed  the 
cause  of  the  North  in  the  War  for  the  American  Union  as 
soon  as  he  saw  that  it  involved  the  aboUtion  of  slavery.  He 
fought  a  manly  fight  for  a  free  church  in  England.  His 
modifications  in  theology  vi^ere  along  ethical  lines.  With 
him  the  ethical  aspect  of  the  atonement  was  supreme. 
He  rejected  Calvinism  largely  because  it  degraded  man. 
"  Our  conception  of  man,  which  is  involved  in  our  concep- 
tion of  God,  hes  at  the  root  of  Christian  morals  and  deter- 
mines the  Christian  ideal  of  the  social  order."  '  His 
thinking  upon  the  eschatological  problem  was  dominated 
by  ethical  considerations.  His  entire  theology  had  a  mis- 
sionary quahty  and  missionary  preaching  was  to  him  a 
special  pleasure,  in  seeking  his  contributions  to  which  the 
free  churches  seemed  to  vie  with  each  other.  "Social 
Science  and  the  Christian  Faith,"  which  he  regarded  as  his 
best  sermon,  will  repay  careful  study  from  the  ethical  point 
of  view.  His  advice,  to  which  he  was  himself  true,  that 
every  preacher  should  wait  a  year  before  making  pubhc 
any  change  in  his  theological  views,  illustrates  his  English 
caution,  balance,  and  regard  for  practical  results.  Dr. 
Dale  is  widely  known  for  the  great  abihty  and  courage 
with  which  he  grappled  with  the  political  questions  of  his 
day.  But  he  was  in  no  objectionable  sense  a  pohtical 
preacher.  He  was  a  strong  behever  in  and  advocate  of  the 
use  by  the  church  and  ministry  of  the  indirect  method  of 
applying  Christianity  to  the  problems  of  society.  It  was 
only  on  this  basis  that  he  entered  the  pohtical  arena.  In 
his  pohtical  campaigns  he  did  not  claim  to  represent  the 
Christian  church  as  an  organized  pubhc  institution.  It 
was  on  the  ground  that  the  so-called  "Forward  Move- 
ment" for  the  federation  of  the  free  churches  involved, 
in  his  opinion,  an  abandonment  of  the  indirect  for  the 
direct  method  of  deahng  with  pubhc  questions  that  he 

'"Fellowship  with  Christ,"   Sermon  VI;   "Social  Science  and   the 
Christian  Faith,"  162. 


PREACHING  OF  THE  ENGLISH  FREE  CHURCHES    269 

refused  to  support  it,  and  he  found  in  the  bad  resuhs,  as 
he  regarded  them,  of  the  direct  method  during  the  period 
of  the  Enghsh  Commonweahh  an  argument  against  the 
new  movement. 

Nor  could  Dr.  Dale,  with  his  Puritan  antecedents  and 
culture,  and  his  sympathetic  association  in  the  pastorate 
with  men  Hke  Jolin  .\ngell  James,  fail  to  be  an  evangehstic 
preacher.      In  fact  it  was  his  early  aspiration  to  hve  among 
the  unblessed  classes  and  to  devote  his  hfe  evangehstically 
to  their  service.     He  cooperated  enthusiasticallv  with  Mr. 
Moody  in  his  evangehstic  campaign  in  Birmingham  in 
1870  and  manfullv  defended  him  against  the  detractions  of 
the  Anghcan  clergv.     He  might  sometimes  be  found  m  the 
Gospef  wagon    preaching    Enghsh  wise   in  the    open  air. 
But  whatever  may  have  been  his  zeal  for  this  type  of  preach- 
mg  and  his  measurable  success  m  it,  it  is  evident  that  there 
were  certain  hmitations  in  his  power  of  persuasion,  and 
that  he  did  not  regard  himself  as  especiaUy  fitted  for  it. 
A  passage  in  the  chapter  on  "Evangehstic  Preachmg" 
in  the  Yale  Lectures,  a  volume  which  ranks  among  the 
four  or  five  best  in  this  series  of  lectures,  is  probably  auto- 
biographical.    He  assumes  that  not  every  preacher  has 
the  evangehstic  gift,  and  that  the  successful  evangehst 
is  a  special  gift  from  God.     But  Mr.  James's  declaration, 
upon  his  reception  of  Dale  as  his  colleague,  that  "a  pas- 
sion for  preachmg  was  a  sure  pledge  of  success"  was  pro- 
phetic of  his  future  career  as  a  preacher,  and  among  his 
successes  was  that  of  winning  men  to  Christ. 

Dr.  Dale  had  a  most  profound,  serious,  and  com- 
prehensive estimate  of  the  function  of  the  Christian 
preacher.  In  this  he  was  a  true  son  of  the  Puritans.  It 
was  to  him  an  "awful,"  but  a  glorious  privilege  to  preach, 
and  the  Gospel  he  proclaimed  was  the  power  of  God.  The 
elements  of  his  success  as  a  preacher  are  not  far  to 
seek.  The  strong  quahty  of  the  truth  presented,  its 
fitness  to  the  rehgious  needs  of  men,  the  clear  and  master- 


2/0  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

ful  unfolding  of  his  subject,  his  grasp  of  its  moral  bearings, 
his  intellectual,  ethical,  and  emotional  earnestness,  his 
strength  of  will  and  sincerity  of  purpose,  his  sagacity  in 
applying  the  truth,  his  courage  tempered  by  dehberateness, 
caution,  considerateness,  and  a  conservatism  that  "dis- 
likes new  ventures,"  his  robust  physical  personahty,  that 
admirably  supported  the  mental  and  moral  qualities  of  the 
man,  and  a  method  of  careful  preparation  that  combined 
the  thoroughness  of  the  trained  and  matured  thinker  with 
the  spontaneity  and  extemporaneousness  of  the  natural 
orator  —  these  are  some  of  the  qualities  that  reveal  them- 
selves in  this  most  manly  of  modern  English  non- 
conformist preachers. 

The  new  generation  of  Congregational  preachers  is  rep- 
resented by  a  considerable  number  of  very  attractive  men 
who  disclose  a  somewhat  marked  modification  in  the  philo- 
sophic and  theologic  quahty  of  their  thinking  and  not  less 
in  their  rhetorical  and  homiletic  method.  They  show 
the  results  of  careful  Hterary  culture  and  of  famiharity 
with  the  poetic  aspects  of  rehgion  and  of  hfe. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Meyers  and  the  Rev.  G.  Campbell  Mor- 
gan are  well  loioAvn  in  the  United  States  in  connection 
with  various  evangehstic  efforts  and  have  shown  themselves 
to  be  masters  of  a  type  of  evangehstic  preaching  which, 
like  that  of  the  best  Scottish  preachers  of  our  day,  among 
whom  may  be  numbered  Professor  George  Adam  Smith 
and  the  late  Professor  Drummond,  is  adapted  to  the  needs 
of  the  more  thoughtful,  educated,  and  cultivated  classes. 
The  Rev.  C.  Sylvester  Home,  pastor  of  the  Whitefield 
Church  at  Tottenham  Road,  is  knoA\TL  in  several  volumes 
of  sermons,  has  appeared  in  literature  in  a  work  entitled 
"The  Modern  Heretic,"  and  in  theology  in  a  "Popular 
History  of  the  Free  Churches,"  and  is  recognized  as  one  of 
the  most  gifted  of  the  younger  preachers,  who  illustrates 
the  modem  Puritan  spirit.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Jowett,  Dale's 
successor  at  Birmingham,  exhibits  in  an  eminent  degree 


PREACHING  OF  THE  ENGLISH  FREE  CHURCHES      271 

that  almost  indefinable  spiritual  qualit}^  which  character- 
izes so  many  of  the  Congregational  preachers  of  the  new 
generation.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Robert  F.  Horton,  in  a  most 
attractive  and  impressive  manner,  and  more  fully  than 
most  of  his  contemporaries,  exhibits  the  more  distinctively 
subjective  and  mystical  aspects  of  Enghsh  Puritan  Con- 
gregationahsm.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Forsyth,  principal  of 
Hackney  College,  discloses  a  certain  intellectual  brill- 
iancy and  incisiveness  comparable  in  a  sort  with  corre- 
sponding quaUties  in  Principal  Fairbaim,  whose  pupil  he 
was,  and  a  strongly  subjective  tendency  involving  a  certain 
vagueness  that  reminds  us  of  Ritschl,  of  whom  he  was  a 
student  at  Gottingen,  qualities  all  of  which  did  not  escape 
the  appreciative  or  critical  notice  of  Dr.  Dale,  the  patron  and 
friend  of  all  gifted  men  who  came  after  him.  Something 
of  the  Ritschhan  spirit  and  method  we  discern  in  an  essay 
on  "Revelation  and  the  Person  of  Christ"  in  "Faith  and 
Criticism,"  a  volume  of  essays  contributed  by  Congrega- 
tional clergymen,  among  them  Dr.  Horton.  The  teach- 
ing is  that  revelation  is  not  of  truth  but  of  person,  not  of 
thought  but  of  purpose,  not  to  rectify  human  ignorance  but 
to  meet  human  helplessness.  Revelation  is  not  through 
nature  but  through  Christ.  Such  revelation  is  all  faith 
needs  and  for  faith  it  is  final,  for  it  is  a  redemptive  revela- 
tion. It  is  in  the  experience  of  redemption  that  we  attain 
to  certainty,  and  for  our  Christian  knowledge  we  are  not  at 
all  dependent  on  metaphysics.  The  atonement  and  the 
resurrection  are  reahties  for  the  church,  and  they  are  not 
so  much  the  ground  as  the  product  of  Christian  faith. 
The  person  of  Christ  can  be  understood  only  by  his  work 
and  the  significance  and  value  of  his  work  are  not  in  what 
it  does  for  God  but  in  what  it  does  for  man.  "It  is 
Christ's  work  to  restore  and  to  transfer  to  us  the  expe- 
rience of  God's  holy  love  in  conditions  of  sin." 

The    Congrcgationahsts   of    England    are    indebted    to 
Scotland  or  to  Scottish  ancestry  for  Home  and  Forsyth 


272  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

and  Dawson  of  Highbury  Quadrant  Congregational  church, 
and  Campbell,  formerly  of  Brighton,  now  Parker's  suc- 
cessor at  City  Temple,  London,  bears  also  the  marks  of  a 
Scottish  heritage. 

Dr.  W.  J.  Dawson,  whose  published  sermons  illustrate 
the  accomplishments  of  a  thoughtful,  suggestive,  and  cul- 
tivated preacher  and  his  aptitude  for  the  higher  forms 
of  pastoral  ministration  of  the  truth,  has  also  attested,  in 
his  highly  valuable  service  in  the  churches  of  the  United 
States,  the  possibiHties  of  such  a  preacher  for  the  higher 
forms  of  evangelism. 

Dr.  Dawson  shows  the  results  of  his  modern  humanistic 
culture.  His  cathohcity  and  broad-mindedness  are  dis- 
closed in  such  sermons  as  "The  Reproach  of  Christ" 
and  "The  Character  of  the  Centurion."^  His  Christian 
conceptions  of  God  and  of  man  and  his  eschatological 
hopefulness  are  seen  in  "The  Survival  of  Memory"  and 
"Dives  in  Hades."  -  Like  most  of  the  younger  school  of 
Enghsh  Congregational  preachers,  he  shows  the  influence 
of  modem  critical  and  theological  questions  and  a  reason- 
able method  of  deahng  with  them.  He  belongs  to  the  best 
type  of  modern  pastoral  evangehsts,  deahng  prevailingly 
with  an  ethical  type  of  evangehstic  subject-matter  and 
laying  emphasis  upon  things  that  are  morally  real.  The 
motives  with  which  he  deals  are  various  and  are  such  as 
appeal  to  the  modem  man.  He  pitches  upon  interesting 
subjects,  to  which  are  given  fehcitous  titles,  hke  "The  Im- 
mortahty  of  Capacity,"  "Untempered  Judgments,"  "The 
Fear  of  Self,"  "The  Silence  of  God,"  from  which  views 
that  are  somewhat  novel  and  thoughts  that  are  eminently 
suggestive  are  deduced.  "The  Fear  of  Self"  is  a  very 
searching  sermon.  He  is  a  skilful  interpreter  of  the  ex- 
periences of  the  soul,  and  "The  Dying  Thief"  is  an  excel- 
lent study  in  ethical  psychology.     The  topics  which  he 

*  "The  Reproach  of  Christ  and  other  Sermons."    Sermons  I  and  VI. 

*  Sermons  VIII  and  IX. 


PREACHING  OF  THE  ENGLISH  FREE  CHURCHES      2/3 

chooses  in  his  discussion  are  generally  practical  aspects  of 
the  subject  in  hand,  and  he  illustrates  the  value  of  the 
appUcatory  method  in  the  development  of  his  theme  as 
well  as  in  the  lessons  of  the  inferential  conclusion.  He  is 
an  admirable  analyst  of  character,  and  the  discourses  that 
touch  upon  historic  personaHties  or  upon  phases  of  their 
hves  are  among  the  best  of  their  kind.  The  preacher's 
Hterary  culture,  in  which  he  stands  preeminent,  is  seen 
not  only  in  the  copiousness  of  his  literary  citation,  but 
in  the  character  of  his  hterary  style,  which  is  notable 
for  the  expository  quahty  of  clearness,  the  ethical  quahty 
of  forcefulness,  and  not  infrequently  the  aesthetic  quahty 
of  a  poetic  gracefulness. 

The  Rev.  Reginald  J.  Campbell  also  has  been  heard  with 
pleasure  in  American  pulpits.  To  the  Enghsh  custom, 
which  might  well  be  introduced  more  fully  into  the  United 
States,  of  giving  to  contemporaries  a  sketch  of  the  hves 
of  notable  men,  we  are  indebted  for  a  fuller  loiowledge  of 
his  personahty  and  his  hfe.  A  Scotch  Presbyterian,  who 
became  an  Anghcan  and  subsequently  accepted  Congre- 
gationahsm  as  furnishing  the  most  attractive  ideal  of  the 
apostohc  church,  and  the  most  potent  influence  in  develop- 
ing individual  character  and  hfe,  is  an  unusual  ecclesiastical 
phenomenon.  But  in  the  case  of  Mr.  CampbeH  it  is  a 
most  attractive  and  influential  product.  An  Oxford  gradu- 
ate and  a  pupil  of  Dr.  Fairbairn's  at  Mansfield  College, 
he  has  behind  him  ample  scholarship  in  history,  philoso- 
phy, Bibhology,  and  dogmatics.  A  volume  entitled  "A 
Faith  for  to-day.  Suggestions  toward  a  System  of  Chrisdan 
Behef,"  consisting  of  sermons  preached  during  his  Brigh- 
ton pastorate,  illustrates  his  power  of  lucid  and  cogent 
statement  in  the  discussion  of  some  of  the  most  important 
problems  of  rehgion.  "The  Choice  of  the  Highest," 
discourses  of  a  more  distinctively  ethical  character,  still 
further  and  perhaps  more  adequately  ihustrates  his  unique 
power  as  a  preacher.     These  sermons  are  marked  by 


274  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

a  notable  simplicity,  thoughtfulness,  and  analytic  skill. 
They  are  eminently  pastoral  in  quality  and  in  their  method 
are  direct,  practical,  and  experimental.  In  a  somewhat  dis- 
tinct and  specitk  sense,  he  is  a  pastoral  preacher.  It  is 
in  the  sense,  namely,  that  in  and  through  his  preaching 
he  discloses  that  indefinable  gift  of  personality  that  enables 
him  to  reveal  his  pastoral  insight  and  spirit.  It  is  thus 
that  he  manifests  the  gifts  of  the  "father  confessor''  by 
which  he  is  able  to  win  confidence  and  to  lead  especially 
the  youth  of  his  congregation  to  open  their  hearts  and  lives 
to  him.  He  deals  with  conditions  as  he  actually  finds 
them  in  his  congregation  or  as  he  shrewdly  conjectures 
them,  and  he  utters  himself  with  a  directness  and  plainness 
of  speech  that  are  home  thrusting  and  searching.  The 
themes  with  which  he  deals  are  of  the  most  simple,  funda- 
mental, and  practical  character,  touching  the  real  everyday 
needs  of  men.  With  the  aims  and  motives  of  the  people  be- 
fore him  he  deals  in  a  very  penetrating  manner.  His  dis- 
cussions are  not  shaped  after  the  most  approved  homiletic 
methods,  and  yet  they  have  the  easy,  graceful  movement 
of  the  unfolding  process  and  are  continuously  attrac- 
tive in  the  expectancy  they  awaken.  There  is  a  distinc- 
tive quality  about  them  that  reminds  us  in  some  aspects 
of  the  preaching  of  Professor  George  Adam  Smith.  In 
its  colloquial  homeliness  and  straightforwardness  his 
style  is  doubtless  attractive  to  the  average  business  man  of 
our  day,  but  suggests  perhaps  too  strong  a  reaction  against 
the  dignified  and  stately  style  of  other  days.  In  a  some- 
what naive  manner  he  takes  his  congregation  into  his  confi- 
dence, but  one  sometimes  questions  whether  the  confiden- 
tial is  not  overworked.  The  personal  factor  in  preaching  is, 
of  course,  very  important.  People  are  interested  in  what 
the  preacher  discloses  to  them  from  the  stores  of  his  own 
experience,  especially  if  these  experiences  have  practical 
touching  points  with  their  own  hves.  But  one  may  be 
overcommunicative  about  one's  self,  about  what  one  wishes 


PREACHING  OF  THE  ENGLISH  FREE  CHURCHES    275 

or  means,  what  one  said,  heard,  and  saw.  One  may  be 
too  "autobiographical,"  to  use  Phillips  Brooks'  term. 
And  yet,  if  Mr.  Campbell  thinks  himself  out  and  down  to 
the  common  Hfe  of  his  hearers,  it  is  equally  true  that  he 
abundantly  realizes  in  his  own  case  what  he  declares  to 
be  a  general  truth,  viz.  that  "under  the  spiritual  stimulus 
of  preaching  people  can  be  made  to  think  up  to  the  mental 
level  of  the  man  who  is  speaking  to  them." 

V.  In  the  preaching  of  the  so-called  Hberal  churches, 
we  find  more  fully  the  disintegrations  of  the  modem  critical 
spirit  than  in  any  other  communion,  if  we  except  the  ex- 
treme left  wing  of  broad  Anglicanism,  in  which  w-e  find 
the  counterpart  of  the  Hberalism  of  the  free  churches  in  its 
abandonment  of  supernatural  Christianity  and  in  its 
allegiance  to  a  theistic  form  of  so-called  natural  religion. 
In  the  United  States  Hberal  influences  are  seemingly  miore 
widely  diffused  among  the  different  denominations  than 
they  are  in  England,  and  it  is  probable  that  in  all  the 
churches  of  this  country  heavier  inroads  have  been  made 
upon  what  is  known  as  the  "evangehcal  faith."  But  it 
must  be  confessed  that  as  compared  with  the  HberaHsm 
of  the  United  States,  that  of  England,  as  represented  by  its 
preachers  of  highest  rank,  who  share  the  graces  of  the  best 
English  reHgious  and  Uterary  culture,  seems  to  have  felt 
more  fully  the  softening  influence  of  reUgious  feeHng  and 
sentiment,  and  in  its  best  estate  is  more  spiritual  in  its 
tone.  No  one  could  Hsten  to  the  preaching  of  Dr.  Mar- 
tineau  without  feehng  this  spiritual  elevation  of  tone. 
English  HberaHsm  has  certainly  abandoned  the  "water- 
logged rationaHsm"  of  a  past  age.  It  is  agnostic  with  re- 
spect to  the  competence  of  the  speculative  reason  to  deal 
successfuHy  with  the  problems  of  reHgion,  and  trusts  itself 
more  fully  to  the  moral  and  spiritual  intuitions.  This  is 
doubtless  true  of  the  HberaHsm  of  the  United  States, 
but  it  seems  more  distinctively  true  of  EngHsh  HberaHsm. 
And  yet,  even  in  cases  in  which  it  has  not  wholly  aban- 


276  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

doned  supematuralism,  its  tendency  is  to  reduce  it  to  a 
minimum.  It  finds  the  seat  of  authority  for  reUgion 
strictly  within  the  subjective  realm.  It  undervalues  the 
significance  and  worth  of  traditional  rehgion,  underesti- 
mates the  importance  of  holding  the  continuity  of  rehgious 
thought,  fails  to  attach  sufticient  value  to  the  testimony 
of  the  common  Christian  consciousness,  and  is  intolerant 
of  the  trammels  of  creeds,  even  if  it  does  not  minimize 
their  expressive  value  in  interpreting  the  truth.  It  lays 
supreme  emphasis  upon  the  ethical  elements  in  Chris- 
tianity, and  would  interpret  all  rehgion  in  the  light  of 
modem  scientific  and  philosophic  thought.  And  just 
here  is  the  great  value  of  the  preaching  of  Enghsh  hberaKsm 
in  our  day.  It  is  most  vigorous  and  manly  in  its  apphcation 
of  the  moral  claims  of  Christianity.  It  is  worthy  of  all 
admiration  for  its  loyalty  to  personal,  rehgious,  political, 
and  ecclesiastical  freedom,  and  to  industrial,  commercial, 
and  civic  integrity  —  as  indeed,  let  it  be  freely  and  thank- 
fully confessed,  is  the  preaching  of  the  hberal  churches  of 
the  United  States.  Moreover,  in  its  homiletic  methods  it 
cultivates  in  a  high  degree  the  graces  of  hterary  form,  and 
affects  the  simple,  unelaborate,  but  thoughtful  type  of  dis- 
course. In  its  ethical  and  Hterary  quahty  its  influence 
upon  the  preaching  of  nonconformists  in  general  has 
been  positive  and  most  salutary,  as  has  that  of  American 
Unitarianism  upon  the  preaching  of  the  United  States. 
It  is  therefore  all  the  more  to  be  regretted  that  its  break 
with  historic  Christianity  has  been  so  general  and  so  de- 
cisive. 

Dr.  James  Martineau,  it  will  be  universally  conceded, 
was  the  most  thoughtful,  accomphshed,  and,  to  the  cul- 
tivated classes,  the  most  attractive  and  acceptable  preacher 
connected  with  the  hberal  school  of  the  free  churches.  If 
one  might  venture  to  suggest  one's  own  personal  impres- 
sions, it  may  be  claimed  that  with  respect  to  weight  of 
thought,  skill  in  analysis,  elevation  of  ideal,  dignity  of  tone, 


PREACHING  OF  THE  ENGLISH  FREE  CHURCHES    2// 

and  perfection  of  literary  form  there  was  no  preaching  in 
London  that  surpassed  it  during  the  years  of  Dr.  Mar- 
tineau's  prime.  He  had  certain  touching  points  with  many 
schools  of  reUgious  thought,  and  in  his  masterful  champion- 
ship of  theism  and  of  a  spiritual  faith,  as  against  modern 
materialism  and  agnosticism,  he  was  elevated  above  all 
partisan  hnes  and  was  gratefully  acknowledged  by  all 
classes  in  the  EngHsh  churches  as  their  representative 
and  the  defender  of  their  cause.  But  in  his  general  point 
of  view,  and  in  his  general  spirit  and  attitude  with  respect 
to  theological  problems,  he  belonged  to  the  hberal  school, 
and  it  is  a  high  honor  to  that  school  to  be  able  to  claim  as 
its  own  an  advocate  of  the  religion  of  the  spirit  who  had  no 
superior  in  his  day.  "Hours  of  Thought  on  Sacred 
Things,"  sermons  published  at  the  close  of  his  career  as  a 
pastoral  preacher,  deserve  more  than  the  cursory  notice 
which  the  limits  of  the  present  discussion  necessitate. 
These  discourses  confirm  the  impression,  which  one  may 
already  have  anticipated,  that  Dr.  Martineau  was  not  for 
the  average  preacher  a  model.  They  suggest  also  that  he 
doubtless  often  soared  above  the  most  profitable  appre- 
hension at  least  of  the  average  congregation.  But  to  the 
congregations  that  hung  upon  his  Ups,  composed  of  the 
most  intelligent  and  cultivated  men  and  women  of  Lon- 
don, they  are  as  honey  for  sweetness  and  as  water  for 
refreshment  and  in  fact  no  most  uninstructed  but  intelli- 
gent hearer  would  ever  fail  to  be  impressed  by  the 
thoughtfulness,  the  dignity,  and  the  gracefulness  of  these 
discourses. 

There  is  very  little  in  them  that  one  challenges  or  ques- 
tions, or  from  which  one  would  wish  to  dissent.  There  is 
no  partisan  advocacy  here  and  there  are  no  partisan  themes. 
They  deal  ^^^th  truths  that  find  general  acceptance  with 
intelligent  Christian  minds.  The  preacher's  specific 
theological  point  of  view  only  here  and  there  appears. 
We  are  in  contact  with  a  grave,  serious  mind  that  is  intent 


2/8  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

upon  setting  forth  in  a  positive  manner  the  weighty  realities 
of  religion.  The  themes  discussed  are  naturally  suggested 
by  the  Scripture  texts,  and  come  by  no  remote  process  of 
deduction.  The  object  is  to  make  the  truth  presented 
manifest  by  the  processes  of  analysis.  They  deal  with  the 
poetic  aspects  of  rehgion,  and  they  show  that  this  poetic 
element,  so  far  from  being  the  unreal  or  the  remotely  ideal, 
is,  in  fact,  the  substantial,  the  real,  the  rational  element. 
The  sermon  entitled  "Religion  in  Parable"  is  a  most  ad- 
mirable discussion  of  the  value  of  the  paraboHc  method  of 
presenting  the  truths  of  religion  for  faith,  for  worship,  and 
for  life.  Rehgion  deals  with  an  ilhmitable  ideal,  for  it 
touches  the  infinitude  of  God  and  the  infinitude  that  is  in 
man,  who  is  in  the  Hkeness  of  God.  "There  is  no  prose 
rehgion."  Everywhere  it  is  this  poetic  aspect  that  emerges, 
and  it  is  the  preacher's  aim  to  justify  it  to  the  intelhgence 
of  his  hearers,  and  to  vindicate  its  claims  upon  their  prac- 
tical life. 

The  ethical  aspect  of  religion  is  also  prominent.  Most 
of  the  subjects  discussed  are  of  the  ethical  sort,  and  even 
those  subjects  that  are  more  distinctly  spiritual  are  dis- 
cussed in  their  ethical  bearings.  The  distinctively  ethical 
basis  of  his  conception  of  rehgion  is  everywhere  apparent. 
Rehgion  is  hfe  guided  by  conscience,  which  determines 
the  ends  of  Hfe.  Nothing  better,  perhaps,  in  all  sermon 
Hterature  has  been  said  about  the  moral  aspects  of  faith 
than  is  said  in  the  discourse  that  bears  the  title  "The 
Moral  Quahty  of  Faith."  "Our  devout  beliefs  are  not 
built,  as  we  suppose,  upon  the  dry  sand  of  reason,  but  ride 
upon  the  flood  of  our  affections."  "Faith  is  the  natural 
hypothesis  of  a  pious  and  good  heart."  The  mystical 
and  the  ethical  equally  with  the  rational  element  in  Dr. 
Martineau  has  received  full  development. 

The  lyric  beauty  of  the  diction  is  perhaps  the  most 
fascinating  feature  in  these  discourses.  It  is  a  highly 
metaphorical  style,  yet  hardly  in  excess,  for  the  preacher's 


PREACHING  OF  THE  ENGLISH  FREE  CHURCHES      279 

thought  is  made  the  more  kiminous  by  it.  It  carries  an 
aphoristic  quality  that  reminds  us  of  Emerson,  but  in  sen- 
tentious strength  it  is  superior  to  the  style  of  Emerson, 
and  there  is  more  that  might  be  quoted  and  remembered 
with  profit.  "RcKgion  is  born  ere  thought  begins;  it  is 
reborn  when  thought  is  consummated  and  enters  into  its 
glory."  "It  is  not  till  we  fall  from  the  platform  of  our 
natural  trusts  that  the  wheels  and  pulleys  of  argument 
are  placed  to  lift  us  back  again."  Terse  and  pithy  sen- 
tences hke  these  may  be  found  on  every  page.  There  is 
a  lack  of  variety  in  the  literary  style,  and  with  all  the  at- 
tractiveness of  its  lyric  elegance,  one  feels  at  times  a  cer- 
tain lack  of  directness  of  statement,  a  certain  remoteness 
or  roundaboutness  that  suggests  the  overelaborateness  of 
elegance.  It  must  be  acknowledged,  too,  that  a  certain 
vagueness  of  conception  and  remoteness  from  ordinar}^ 
thought  and  experience  limit  the  effectiveness  of  these 
discourses.  The  thought  is  too  exclusively  subjective,  Un- 
gering  almost  wholly  in  the  reahn  of  analysis,  and  we  miss 
a  robust  supernaturalism  and  the  helpfulness  of  an  objec- 
tive Gospel  of  Grace.  They  are  not  quite  human  enough. 
One  misses  the  concrete  and  personal  element  in  the  sub- 
jects discussed,  and  feels  a  corresponding  lack  of  personal 
intensity  and  force  in  the  preacher  himself.  This  lack 
of  the  personal  element  is  seen,  for  example,  in  the  sermon 
entitled  "The  Better  Part."  "The  Better  Part"  is  the 
Kfe  regulated  from  within  as  distinguished  from  the  life 
regulated  from  without.  Its  relation  to  the  personal 
Christ  is  scarcely  recognized.  Christ  is  at  best  only  a 
teacher  of  this  better  part.  He  brings  the  true  philosophy 
of  life,  and  scarce  otherwise  does  he  appear  as  the  "Re- 
deemer" of  men,  a  designation  for  Christ  which  never- 
theless Dr.  Martineau  very  frequently  employs. 

The  sermons  are  in  essay  form,  without  sahent  topics, 
but  not  without  clearness  of  outhne  or  steady  and  progres- 
sive movement.     But  one  sermon  in  the  volume  has  a 


280  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

fonnal  division  and  enumeration  of  topics.  In  both  ar- 
rangement and  expression,  as  well  as  quality  of  thought, 
they  are  adapted  to  the  exceptionally  intelhgent  and  cul- 
tivated audience. 

Dr.  Stopford  A.  Brooke,  widely  known  and  highly 
estimated  as  the  biographer  of  Robertson,  and  as  an  au- 
thority in  Uterature,  is  also  regarded  by  some  as  the  most 
accompHshed  preacher  that  has  been  connected  with  the 
AngUcan  church  since  Robertson's  day.  In  Hterary  ac- 
complishments, although  inferior  to  Dr.  Martineau  in 
elegance  of  literary  style,  he  is  entitled  to  be  classed  with 
him  as  one  of  the  most  gifted  men  in  the  Unitarian  body, 
vdth  which,  on  conscientious  grounds,  he  allied  himself  in 
1880.  The  volume  of  sermons  pubHshed  in  1869,  while 
connected  with  the  Anghcan  church,  and  which  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  second  series  similar  in  character,  discloses  his 
broad  churchmanship,  and  although  giving  no  indication 
of  that  specific  form  of  hberahsm  that  is  represented  by 
Enghsh  Unitarianism,  it  suggests  the  affinity  between 
AngUcan  broad  churchmanship  and  the  broadest  church- 
manship of  English  nonconformity.  But  at  this  time  Dr. 
Brooke  had  not  abandoned  supernaturaUsm,  and  was  the 
advocate  of  a  positive  type  of  preaching,  which  should  en- 
deavor to  "build  and  not  to  overthrow."  His  broad- 
.  church,  humanistic,  and  naturahstic  tendencies,  however, 
are  readily  apparent  in  his  conception  of  the  relation  of  the 
supernatural  to  the  order  of  the  world.  He  would  not 
classify  all  the  facts  of  Christianity  as  belonging  to  the 
order  of  natural  phenomena,  but  there  is  a  tendency  to 
minimize  their  supernatural  significance  and  to  find  for 
them,  as  far  as  possible,  a  place  in  the  sphere  of  nature. 
All  divine  judgments,  for  example,  come  in  a  strictly  natural 
way,  and,  vdthout  questioning  the  divinity  of  Christ, 
the  human  aspects  of  his  life  are  put  in  the  forefront.  But 
he  is  still  a  trinitarian  and  a  supernaturalist,  accepting 
the  ascension  of  Christ  as  being  the  outcome  of  his  resur- 


PREACHING  OF  THE  ENGLISH  FREE  CHURCHES      281 

rection,  both  of  which  may  be  assumed,  because  involved 
in  his  exalted  personality.  His  choice  of  subjects  at  this 
time  reminds  us  of  Robertson.  The  life  and  character 
of  Christ  furnish  favorite  themes,  and  Robertson's  analytic 
method  of  deahng  with  their  phenomena  is  followed. 
Christ  is  set  before  us  as  the  great  moral  ideal  of  all  true 
human  Hfe.  His  complete  moral  perfection  at  every  stage 
of  his  earthly  development  is  fully  recognized,  and  the 
chief  difference  between  ordinary  human  development  and 
that  of  Christ  is  the  moral  imperfection  of  the  former  at 
every  stage.  His  doctrinal  position  is  that  of  tem- 
perate broad  churchmanship,  and  it  remained  such  for 
several  years.  His  conception  of  the  Bible  as  "inspired 
with  regard  to  universal  principles,"  and  "not  inspired 
with  regard  to  details,"  is  precisely  that  of  Robertson.  He 
is  not  a  behever  in  external  authority  but  in  the  intuitions 
and  in  the  moral  and  spiritual  instincts  and  he  always 
grapples  with  fundamental  and  regulative  principles. 
But  inadequate  generahzations  and  the  manipulation  of 
facts  by  the  imagination  sometimes,  although  not  often, 
appear,  as  they  do  in  Robertson's  preaching.  His  interest 
in  scientific  questions  and  famiUarity  with  scientific  meth- 
ods and  results,  is  what  we  might  expect  of  a  man  trained 
in  the  broad-church  school.  His  sermon  on  "Creation" 
indicates  his  desire  to  harmonize  the  facts  of  revelation 
with  those  of  science.  He  has  the  expository  gift,  in  an 
eminent  degree,  always  blending  the  historic  and  the  ap- 
phcatory  methods  in  deahng  with  his  subjects.  There  are 
sermons  of  the  earher,  as  of  the  later  period,  that  reveal 
an  expositoiy  gift  as  distinct  as  that  of  Robertson,  al- 
though his  method  is  greatly  inferior.  His  movement 
toward  Unitarianism  was  very  gradual  and  apparently 
at  last  involved  but  very  httle  change  in  his  theological 
behefs.  The  chief  change  was  his  abandonment  of  behef 
in  miracles,  which  he  regarded  as  inconsistent  with  his  con- 
tinued acceptance  of  the  doctrinal  standards  of  the  Angli- 


282  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

can  communion.  But  the  humanistic  and  naturalistic 
tendencies  already  referred  to  were  doubtless  a  prepa- 
ration for  his  transition  from  the  right  to  the  left  wing  of 
broad  AngHcanism  and  thence  into  a  still  more  pronounced 
type  of  Hberahsm. 

The  ethical  note  in  his  preaching  from  the  earhest  period 
is  also  noteworthy.  This  is  what  we  might  expect  from 
a  man  who  had  hved  in  the  school  of  Robertson,  and  is  in 
line  with  his  broad-church  training  in  general.  This 
dominance  of  the  ethical  impulse  may  also  have  furthered 
the  movement  away  from  AngHcanism.  A  critical  vein 
runs  through  his  discourses.  The  poHtical  and  com- 
mercial life  of  his  time  is  especially  an  object  of  animad- 
version. He  is  especially  severe  with  those  who,  in  their 
conservatism,  are  the  patrons  of  the  commonplace,  and  who 
undervalue  and  seek  to  suppress  men  of  genius.  One 
imagines  that  the  story  of  Robertson's  Ufe  still  hngers  in 
his  remembrance.  We  have  fallen  upon  e\il  times,  times 
when  faith  is  weak  and  when  men  are  finding  nothing  but 
a  dead  world.  To  meet  these  conditions,  he  would  have 
a  positive,  but  rational  message.  We  find  in  him  a  touch 
of  ideahstic  romanticism,  characteristic  of  broad-church 
liberals  in  general.  We  find,  too,  something  the  same  sense 
of  Ufe  as  consecrated,  but  the  same  trust  also  in  Christ  as 
holding  the  key  to  the  solution  of  all  these  mysteries  and 
as  the  power  that  makes  the  consecration  of  life  real  and 
productive.  His  interest  in  the  poor  and  unblessed, 
in  social  and  economic  questions,  his  patriotic  love  of  the 
nation  and  his  devotion  to  a  national  rehgion,  which  devo- 
tion the  Anglican  cherishes  and  the  nonconformist  discred- 
its, are  in  line  with  the  humanistic  and  ethical  culture  of  his 
broad  churchmanship.  Dissatisfaction  with  existing  con- 
ditions in  both  pohtical  and  ecclesiastical  life  is  evident. 
It  was  evidently  the  fuller  development  of  all  these  ten- 
dencies, the  increasing  grip  of  the  scientific  spirit  and 
method,  a  gradual  loosening  of  his  hold  upon  the  super- 


PREACHING  OF  THE  ENGLISH  FREE  CHURCHES      283 

natural  forces  of  Christianity,  and  conscientious  scruples 
about  reading  his  own  theological  conceptions  into  the  doc- 
trinal standards  of  the  church,  that  at  last  brought  him 
into  the  Unitarian  camp.  It  is  the  inevitable  issue  of  all 
honest  denial  of  the  supernatural  forces  in  Christianity. 

In  Dr.  Brooke's  preaching  we  find  nothing  of  Robert- 
son's homilctic  order.  Not  only  the  earlier,  but  the  later 
sermons,  "Christ  in  Modern  Life,"  "The  Old  Testament 
in  Modern  Life,"  expository  discourses  on  Old  Testament 
characters,  in  which  modern  Biblical  criticism  is  brought 
into  use  in  his  exposition  in  an  altogether  reasonable  and 
temperate  manner,  and  "The  Gospel  of  Joy,"  are  all 
characterized  by  this  same  lack  of  definitely  ordered  de- 
velopment. We  have  a  succession  of  coherently  related 
thoughts  but  no  landing  places  and  no  boundary  marks 
to  indicate  the  course  of  the  journey.  There  is  no  attempt 
to  objectify  his  subjective  processes,  to  project  the  points 
of  his  analysis  into  salient  outline,  and  to  give  the  hearer 
the  advantage  of  it  in  the  organization  of  the  material  of 
the  semion.  The  hterary  style  is  in  the  main  clear,  collo- 
quial, and  plain,  bearing  the  mark  of  the  objective  Enghsh 
mind.  It  is  the  expository  style  whose  dominant  note  is 
clarity.  He  has  the  descriptive  gift  that  handles  successfully 
external  scenes  and  pictures  subjective  experiences.  But 
the  early  style  lacks  the  dignity,  freedom,  grace,  and  force 
of  Robertson's  style.  In  deahng,  however,  with  the  deeper 
and  more  soul-mioving  experiences  of  life,  his  diction  be- 
comes more  elevated  and  elegant,  and  in  the  later  sermons 
the  quality  of  force  is  more  manifest.  He  has  something 
of  Robertson's  skill  in  spirituaUzing  the  phenomena  he 
would  interpret,  as  seen,  for  example,  in  his  discourse  on 
"Angehc  Visitations."  His  speculative  gifts,  his  high 
spiritual  impulse,  and  his  poetic  imagination  are  manifest. 
His  hterary  work,  not  only  in  its  technical  and  historic 
aspects  but  in  its  appHcation  to  the  interpretation  of  the 
religious  elements  in  modern  poetry,  is  of  a  high  order. 


284  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

Frequent  citations  attest  his  knowledge  of  poetic  literature, 
and  we  discover  also  his  interest  in  and  familiarity  with 
classical  literature.  A  volume  of  poems  also  attests  his 
own  poetic  gifts. 

The  style  of  many  of  the  discourses  suggests  that  he 
preached  extemporaneously,  that  of  others  that  there  is  a 
n;ianuscript  behind  them.  His  appeal  to  his  hearers  is 
direct  and  his  practical  aim  is  manifest.  He  has  carried 
the  results  of  his  early  devout  reUgious  culture  into  his 
changed  ecclesiastical  relations,  and  its  elevated  spiritual 
tone  is  a  positive  and  valuable  contribution  to  the  preach- 
ing of  EngHsh  Hberahsm. 


SCOTTISH    PREACHING  285 


IV 

SCOTTISH    PREACHING 


No  part  of  Great  Britain  has  been  so  thoroughly  edu- 
cated and,  on  the  whole,  so  beneficently  dominated  by  the 
Christian  pulpit  as  Scotland.  With  respect  to  its  intlu- 
ence  upon  the  character  and  hfe  of  the  people,  as  weU  as 
its  own  intrinsic  excellence,  it  is  an  exceptionally  valuable 
study.  The  Scottish  preacher  has  long  been  a  controlhng 
influence  in  the  mental,  moral,  and  religious  hfe  of  the 
middle  class,  and  in  our  own  day  he  is  successfully  reaching 
the  upper  and  lower  classes  as  well.  ^ 

In  its  generic  quaUties  Scottish  preaching  is  alhed  mth 
the  Puritan  preaching  of  England,  and  has  close  affin- 
ity with  the  strongest  and  most  educative  type  of  American 
preaching.  For  the  American  student  of  modern  preach- 
ing, therefore,  it  should  have  special  interest.  As  m  the 
preaching  of  all  Protestant  communions,  there  have  been 
periods  when  it  has  failed  to  meet  the  deeper  needs  of  men, 
when  its  interpretation  of  human  Hfe  has  been  narrow, 
when  it  has  ensmalled  and  impoverished  men's  conceptions 
of  Christianity  and  has  been  tributary  to  ungracious  and 
ungentle  aspects  of  Christian  beheving  and  hying,  its 
earHest  representatives  were  excessively  dogmatic  in  tone 
and  temper,  and  post-Reformation  orthodoxy  made  an  easy 
conquest  of  their  successors.  The  polemic  method  and 
the  schismatic  spirit  have  even  in  later  years  made  havoc 
of  the  churches,  and  a  lifeless  naturalism  has  measurably 


286  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

impoverished  their  spiritual  life.  But  it  must  be  acknowl- 
edged that  the  Scottish  pulpit  has  in  its  own  way  supported 
a  distinctively  educative,  if  not  always  a  worthily  edifying, 
type  of  British  preaching.  It  has  never  failed  in  solidity 
of  thought,  nor  in  genuine  regard  for  the  religious  interests 
of  the  people  as  they  have  been  understood.  It  has  never 
failed  to  appropriate  the  fruits  of  the  best  literary  culture, 
whenever  such  culture  has  been  available,  as  illustrated, 
e.g.,  by  the  preachers  of  the  so-called  moderate  school,  and 
as  illustrated  by  the  preachers  of  nearly  all  schools  in  our 
day,  and  therefore  it  has  never  lacked  in  artistic  quality 
whenever  questions  of  artistic  form  have  been  permitted  to 
claim  their  rights.  For  the  Scotchman,  hke  the  French- 
man, has  an  aptitude  for  rhetorical  and  oratorical  elevation 
and  forcefulness  of  speech.  In  all  the  higher  and  weightier 
qualities  of  pubhc  speech  it  has  been  greatly  superior 
to  the  preaching  of  Ireland  and  of  Wales,  and  in  many 
respects  to  that  of  England,  whether  in  the  estabhshment 
or  in  the  nonconforming  communions. 

The  Irish  pulpit  has,  on  the  whole,  made  no  very  marked 
impression  upon  the  outside  world,  and  somehow  it  has 
never  adequately  influenced  or  educated  the  Irish  people. 
In  so  far  as  it  is  Protestant,  it  is  affihated  with  the  Scottish 
pulpit,  and  its  most  gifted  representatives  are  found  in  the 
Scotch-Irish  Presbyterian  communities  of  the  north.  The 
preaching  of  these  communities  has  been  transplanted  to 
the  United  States  and  has  not  been  without  influence  upon 
the  preaching  of  the  American  Presbyterian  churches.  In 
subject-matter  its  preaching  has  been  prevaihngly  doc- 
trinal, in  tone  evangehcally  devout,  in  aim  practically  reli- 
gious, in  spirit  and  purpose  pastoral  and  evangelistic,  in 
method  Biblical,  and  it  bears  the  marks  of  the  powerful 
revivals  of  religion  through  which  Protestant  Ireland  has 
passed.  Its  preachers  have  more  of  that  solidity  of  mind 
and  that  sobriety  of  moral  and  reUgious  character  that 
belong  in  general  to  the  Scotch,  than  of  that  Celtic  fire 


SCOTTISH   PREACHING  287 

which  is  the  inheritance  of  the  Irish  people.  But  the 
Irish  pulpit  is  prevaihngly  Roman,  and  somehow  the  Ro- 
man church,  although  productive  of  highly  gifted  indi- 
vidual preachers  of  great  significance  and  power,  has  on 
the  whole  failed  to  develop  a  type  of  preaching  that  has 
compelHng  influence  as  related  to  the  higher  intelHgence, 
the  deeper  rehgious  needs,  and  the  larger  moral  possibiHties 
of  the  Irish  people.  Many  unfavorable  conditions  have 
doubtless,  in  various  ways,  counterworked  or  withstood 
the  best,  when  there  has  been  any  best,  that  the  Roman 
clergy  might  have  desired  to  do  for  their  people.  Popular 
education  has  been  neglected.  No  branch  of  knowledge 
has  found  here  a  sphere  of  wholly  independent  develop- 
ment. The  poHtical,  industrial,  commercial,  and  eco- 
nomic conditions  of  the  country  have  been  disorganized, 
and  these  barriers,  not  necessarily  fatal,  it  is  true,  to  the 
spiritual  effectiveness  of  a  genuine  Gospel  of  power,  yet 
fatal  to  an  intelUgent,  thrifty,  and  aggressive  church  life, 
have  never  been  wholly  surmounted,  and  the  type  of 
preaching  that  prevails  in  the  Irish  Roman  church,  vrith 
all  its  rhetorical  brilhancy  as  illustrated  by  indi\'idual 
preachers,  fails  in  educative  and  elevating  spiritual  power. 
Eloquence  is  indeed  an  Irish  gift.  In  no  section  of  Great 
Britain,  not  even  in  Wales,  whose  people  are  in  an  eminent 
degree  characterized  by  vivacity  of  feeling  and  imagination, 
do  we  find  so  much  native  and  spontaneous  eloquence. 
But  it  is  the  platform  not  the  pulpit,  the  forum  and  the 
hustings  not  the  church,  politics  not  rehgion,  that  has  de- 
veloped it. 

Scotland,  hke  Wales,  has  developed  the  gift  of  pubUc 
speech  in  the  pulpit,  but  Ireland  has  found  its  sphere  in  the 
poHtical  arena.  There  have  been  no  such  Irish  preachers, 
Protestant  or  Roman,  as  Chalmers  and  Guthrie,^  and 
many  others  that  might  be  named.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  there  have  probably  been  no  such  Scottish  political 

*  See  "Representative  Modern  Preachers,"  Ch.  VIII. 


288  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

orators  as  Sheridan  and  O'Connell.  The  difference  lies 
not  so  much  in  native  gifts,  although  the  gifts  doubtless 
vary  in  type,  as  in  the  religious  endowment  and  equipment 
of  the  people  and  in  those  pohtical,  ecclesiastical,  educa- 
tional, intellectual,  and  social  conditions  of  the  two  coun- 
tries, which  in  the  one  case  have  furthered  and  in  the  other 
have  retarded  the  development  of  oratory  in  the  sphere  of 
rehgion.  Fiery  emotion,  dramatic  passion,  pathos,  sharp 
mother  wit,  poetic  diction,  and  full- toned,  sonorous  elocu- 
tion are  the  marks  of  typical  Irish  oratory,  and  one  cannot 
fail  to  recognize  the  great  possibilities  of  the  Irish  pulpit 
under  changed  pohtical,  ecclesiastical,  educational,  and 
rehgious  conditions.  But  the  history  of  Scotland,  as  con- 
trasted with  that  of  Ireland,  illustrates  the  power  of  an 
intelhgent  religion  and  an  intelligent  ecclesiasticism,  of  an 
intelligent  devotion  to  good  learning,  of  commercial  and 
industrial  thrift,  and  of  a  genius  for  the  conservation  of 
civic  freedom  to  consecrate  and  to  foster  the  gifts  of 
pulpit  speech ;  and  only  a  long  period  of  enUghtenment 
and  of  disciphne  in  civic  and  ecclesiastical  virtues  will 
secure  for  Ireland  a  rejuvenated  and  a  reconsecrated  pulpit. 
The  Welsh  pulpit  has  in  all  ways  influenced  the  eccle- 
siastical and  civic  community  more  effectively  than  the 
Irish  pulpit,  and  will  well  repay  the  study  of  any  one  who  is 
interested  in  the  problems  of  popular  evangehstic  preach- 
ing. It  is  especially  valuable  as  illustrating  the  power  of 
this  type  of  preaching  in  promoting  wide-reaching  reli- 
gious awakenings  in  the  churches,  as  seen  in  the  late  re- 
vival movement.  The  Welsh  and  Irish,  aUke  in  their 
emotional  and  imaginative  gifts,  are  of  a  kindred  ora- 
torical temperament.  It  may  be  more  correct  to  say  that 
the  Welsh  are  natural  preachers  and  the  Irish  natural 
orators.  For  in  Wales,  as  in  Scotland,  oratory  has 
developed  in  the  pulpit  and  assumes  a  form  that  is 
distinctively  appropriate  to  the  work  of  preaching. 
The  Welsh  have  not  only  the  impulse  for  rhetorical  ex- 


SCOTTISH   PREACHING  289 

pression,  or  that  native  facility  of  speech  which  charac- 
terizes an  imaginative  and  emotional  people,  and  a 
language  that  is  said  to  be  singularly  adapted  to  imagi- 
native and  emotional  effects,  but  they  have  the  didactic 
and  ethical  impulse  to  interpret  and  enforce  the  truth 
as  they  sense  and  see  it.  This  gift  for  exposition  and  ad- 
vocacy seems  to  have  become  a  dexterous  habit  which  the 
humblest  shares  measurably  with  the  most  gifted  preacher. 
The  Welsh  people  have  developed  no  independent  culture. 
Nor  have  they  been  influenced  to  any  considerable  extent 
by  the  higher  forms  of  culture  existent  among  other  peo- 
ples, as  the  Scotch,  for  example,  have  been  in  the  domain  of 
science  and  in  the  domains  of  philosophy  and  theology. 
There  is  no  science — philosophy,  theology,  or  literature — 
that  bears  their  mark,  nor  has  it  been  transplanted  and  do- 
mesticated from  other  sources  to  a  very  large  extent.  The 
provision  for  popular  education  has  been  meagre,  and  the 
Welsh  have  never  yet  reached  the  measure  of  intelhgcncc, 
learning,  and  culture  that  have  been  found  in  Scotland 
for  many  generations.  But  within  a  relatively  short  time, 
particularly  within  the  last  centur}^,  they  have  attained  to 
a  worthy  Christian  civihzation,  and  they  illustrate  the 
power  of  a  genuine  evangelical  type  of  Christianity  to 
elevate  and  ennoble  a  people.  It  was  the  Methodist  re- 
vival of  England  that  found  here  a  responsive  and  fruit- 
ful soil  and  that  gave  us  modern  Wales.  The  Welsh 
preachers  produced  by  this  great  movement  were  simple 
evangehcal  Biblical  preachers,  without  the  learning  of  the 
schools,  but  in  their  practical  exposition  and  direct  evan- 
geUstic  enforcement  of  rehgious  truth  they  were  surprisingly 
effective  with  their  own  people,  and  the  Welsh  preacher  of 
to-day,  better  educated,  bears  the  common  homiletic 
mark  of  his  countrymen  and  still  attests  the  power  of  that 
great  movement.  In  his  preaching  he  is  practical  rather 
than  speculative,  emotional  rather  than  intellectual, 
imaginative  rather  than  dialectical,  capable,  as  witness  such 


290  THE    MODERN    PULPIT 

preachers  as  Christmas  Evans,  of  great  dramatic  intensity. 
Nowhere  in  Great  Britain  do  we  find  so  complete  a 
development  of  the  evangelistic  and  revival  interest,  and 
of  the  textual  and  expository  method,  and  nowhere 
such  insistence  upon  an  evangehcal  type  of  piety  and 
upon  a  spiritually  effective  type  of  preaching.  More- 
over, it  must  be  conceded  that  Welsh  preaching  has  been 
strongly  tributary,  not  only  to  the  religious  Hfe  of  the  peo- 
ple but  to  a  certain  sort  of  rehgious  intelUgence.  For  the 
Protestant  tradition  of  a  rehgion  that  is  to  be  taught  pre- 
vails. To  the  advancement  of  theological  knowledge  or 
to  the  largest  type  of  Christian  intelhgence  it  has  not  con- 
tributed materially.  But  even  in  this  a  change  has 
come,  and  in  our  day  there  is  no  more  intelligent  or  attrac- 
tive class  of  preachers  than  those  Welshmen  who  have 
secured  the  best  culture  of  the  schools  of  Great  Britain 
and  who  are  found  in  different  communions  of  the  United 
Kingdom  and  of  the  United  States. 

The  EngUsh  pulpit,  particularly  in  the  broad- church 
section  of  the  establishment  and  in  some  of  the  free 
churches,  may  surpass  the  Scottish  pulpit  in  a  larger  and 
more  hberal  appropriation  of  what  is  called  modern  cul- 
ture, and  some  might  say  in  a  broader  apprehension  and 
interpretation  of  Christianity,  and  it  may  have  taken  its 
Christianity  farther  out  into  the  various  spheres  of  human 
life,  adjusting  itself  more  fully  and  freely  to  the  secular 
realm.  In  its  cosmopoUtan  quality  and  its  contempt  of 
provincialism  it  may  carry  more  distinctively  the  modern 
note.  But  it  will  be  almost  universally  conceded  that  on 
the  whole  the  Scottish  pulpit  is  more  heavily  weighted 
intellectually,  is  more  carefully  educative,  and  not  the 
less  practically  efficient  in  the  production  of  those  results 
towards  which  it  aims.  In  fact  the  mental  aspects  of 
religion  have  in  Scotland  received  fuller  recognition  than 
in  any  other  part  of  Great  Britain.  The  typical  Scottish 
preacher  is  a  man  of  strong  intellectual  fibre,  of  clear  in- 


SCOTTISH   PREACHING  291 

tellectual  discrimination,  with  a  philosophic  habit  of  mind, 
of  sturdy  practical  sense  not  the  less,  of  religious  devout- 
ness,  of  proverbial  tenacity  of  will,  and  is  not  at  all  deficient 
in  those  gifts  of  feehng  and  imagination  that  secure  carry- 
ing power  for  his  message.  And  these  are  the  gifts  that 
fit  him  supremely  for  the  work  of  the  pulpit.  The  history 
and  traditions  of  Scotland  have  favored  the  development 
of  these  preaching  gifts.  It  was  a  strong  type  of  Protes- 
tantism that  at  the  first  took  hold  of  the  Scottish  people, 
and  this,  with  whatever  modifications,  has  substantially 
held  its  own  against  all  extremes  of  disintegrating  influ- 
ence. PoUtical  discontents  have  not  dissipated  the  ener- 
gies of  the  people.  Science,  philosophy,  theology,  Htera- 
ture,  and  pubhc  education  have  found  here  a  fruitful  soil. 
English  influences  have  been  freely  welcomed,  but  its 
civiUzation  has  flourished  in  relative  independence  of 
England,  and,  since  the  beginning  of  the  last  century 
especially,  Scotland  herself  has  made  many  notable  con- 
tributions to  English  civihzation  and  in  general  to 
human  progress.  The  Scottish  scientists,  who  have  been 
more  responsive  to  French  influences,  and  Scottish  philoso- 
phers, who  have  been  more  responsive  to  German  influ- 
ences, even  than  EngUshmen  themselves,  and  especially 
men  of  letters  Hke  Sir  Walter  Scott  and  Thomas  Carlyle 
and  the  literary  circle  of  Edinburgh,  and  not  the  less  many 
of  Scotland's  most  distinguished  preachers,  who  have 
been  trained  wholly  in  her  schools,  belong  equally  to  Eng- 
land. Of  philosophic  thinkers  especially,  Scotland  has  been 
the  home,  and  Scottish  philosophy,  whether  in  the  form 
of  the  older  reahsm,  or  of  the  modern  idealism,  has  colored 
and  is  coloring  the  theology  and  the  preaching  of  the  church. 
It  has  always  been  difficult  for  Scottish  theologians  and 
preachers  to  conceive  of  Christianity  as  other  than  a  doc- 
trinal rehgion,  and  for  many  generations  the  teachings  of 
Calvin  have  been  held  as  containing  the  heart  of  it.  With 
such  a  conception  of  Christianity  the  Scottish  preacher 


2^2  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

must  always  be  strong  in  the  body  of  his  thought.    He  must 
have  a  soHd  basis  for  his  work,  and  will  always  develop 
the  strong  points  of  his  subjects.     He  believes  devoutly 
in  the  high  functions  of  the  preacher,  in  his  possibilities 
of  commanding  influence  and   is  not  slow  to  assert  his 
ministerial  prerogatives.     He  respects  the  theology  of  his 
church,  respects  himself  as  a  rehgious  teacher,  cherishes 
the  conservative  habit  of  mind,  and  preaches  positively. 
It  is  an  exceptional  class  of  Scottish  preachers  that  aim 
supremely  at  immediate  ethical   or  evangehstic  impres- 
sion.    The  dominant  aim  is  edification  by  exposition  and 
by  enlargement    of    rehgious  knowledge,  or    by  mental 
clarification  and  the  regulation  of  correct  thinking,  and  all 
moral  inculcation  or  evangehstic  incentive  is  based  on 
sound  teaching  as  the  preacher  understands  it.     Devout 
in  his  habit  of  mind,  Hke  the  German,  he  yet  lacks  the 
German's    copious    sentimentahty    and    his    intellectual 
freedom,    and    he    does   not    always    clearly   distinguish 
between  what  is  churchly  orthodox  and  what  is  BibUcally 
evangelical.     But   he   is   capable   of   strong  enthusiasm, 
has  trained  skill  in  translating  theological  thought   into 
popular  forms  of  conception  and  speech,  and  has  not  less 
a  practical  than  a  didactic  aim.     Scottish  race  pecuHari- 
ties  are  generally  prominent  in  the  preacher,  and   they 
have  made  themselves  manifest  in  every  period,  although, 
in   the    tendency  toward    unification  of   homiletic   type, 
they  are  somewhat  less  marked  in  our  day.     The  charac- 
teristic thoughtfulness  of   the   Scottish  race,  its   serious- 
ness and  its  rhetorical  forcefulness  and  elocutionary  vigor, 
are  abnost  always  present  in  the  pulpit  product,  and  some- 
times, one  may  add,  a  certain    self-rehance    and    self- 
assertiveness,  which  involve  a  guileless  self- consciousness 
which  is  quite  pardonable  in  those  who  are  the  objects  of 
great  respect  and   sometimes  of   adulation.     But  while 
race  pecuHarities  are  generally  apparent,  Scottish  preach- 
ing has  disclosed  various  types  in  different  periods.     The 


SCOTTISH   PREACHING  293 

period  of  the  Reformation  and  that  of  the  Covenant  were 
characterized  by  strong,  rude  polemics.  There  were  foes 
within  and  without  the  church,  and  Christianity  was  al- 
ways on  the  defensive.  The  preacher  Uved  in  the  constant 
conviction  that  he  was  surrounded  by  the  enemies  of  the 
true  faith.  It  was  an  aggressive,  mihtant  pulpit,  tributary 
doubtless  to  unchristian  tempers  of  mind  and  to  eccle- 
siastical discord,  but  with  all  its  narrowness  of  view,  its 
crudeness  and  provinciaHsm  of  thought,  its  schismatic 
spirit,  its  rudeness  of  tone  and  temper,  and  its  stiff  and 
formal  methods,  it  probably  did  the  work  that  fell  to  its 
hand  as  well  as  its  hmitations  permitted,  and  better  far 
in  ultimate  result  than,  from  the  point  of  view  of  our  own 
age,  might  have  been  expected.  It  fixed  the  dogmatic 
method,  which  is  an  inheritance  of  the  Scottish  preacher, 
from  which  only  in  late  years  he  has  disinherited  himself. 
Nowhere  in  Protestant  Christendom  has  Christian  apology 
held  so  important  a  place  in  the  pulpit  or  Christian  apolo- 
getics received  so  full  and  elaborate  development.  But  it 
never  wholly  lost  its  BibHcal  basis  and  was  never  wholly  in- 
different to  the  demands  of  the  changing  conditions  of  time. 
The  Secession  movement,  which  is  the  principal  basis 
of  the  United  Presbyterian  church,  was  one  of  the  chief 
agencies  that  wrought  a  modification  in  the  harsher  fea- 
tures of  Calvinism,  and  in  the  polemic  severities  of  the 
preaching  of  a  previous  period.  The  development  of 
Moderatism,  so  called,  to  which  reference  has  already 
been  made,  which  dates  from  the  beginning  of  the  eigh- 
teenth centur}',  still  further  modified  the  fingering  sternness 
of  Calvinism,  but  ignored  the  evangefical  doctrines  of  the 
church  and  introduced  into  the  pulpit  a  species  of  ration- 
afistic  morafizing  analogous  to  the  deistic  preaching  of 
England.  In  its  formal  aspect,  however,  it  enriched  preach- 
ing by  avaihng  itself  of  the  fiterary  culture  of  the  time, 
which  secured  for  it  a  tone  of  stately  respectabifity  that 
made  it  acceptable  to  the  educated   classes,  while  in  the 


294  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

substance  of  its  teaching  and  in  its  reKgious  tone  it 
became  impoverished  and  was  unfruitful  both  for  thought 
and  hfe.  During  all  these  movements  the  philosophical, 
and  indeed  the  theological,  basis  of  Scottish  preaching 
underwent  no  fundamental  change.  The  Secession  move- 
ment modified  but  did  not  revolutionize  the  theology  of 
the  church,  and  Moderatism  simply  ignored  orthodoxy, 
but  made  no  substantial  head  against  it. 

The  evangehcal  movement,  which  antagonized  the 
"moderate"  school  in  the  first  half  of  the  last  century, 
was  not  only  theological  but  ecclesiastical  in  its  character 
and  aim,  and  while  it  opposed  the  latitudinarianism  and 
rationaUsm  of  "moderatism,"  and  under  the  changed 
conditions  of  church  life,  and  especially  under  new  de- 
mands upon  its  philanthropy,  effected  an  ecclesiastical 
emancipation,  it  also  still  further  modified  the  austerities 
of  the  older  Calvinism.  This  "Anti-patronage"  move- 
ment of  the  evangehcals,  which  resulted  in  the  "Disrup- 
tion" and  the  consequent  birth  of  the  Free  Church,  was 
conterminous  with  the  movement  of  the  high  AngUcans 
of  England,  who,  between  the  years  1833  and  1843,  under 
the  influence  of  a  newly  awakened  church  Ufe,  were  en- 
deavoring to  detach  the  church  from  its  entanglements 
with  the  state.  It  was  a  genuine  movement  of  evangelical 
piety  and  philanthropy,  whose  influence  and  results  have 
never  been  lost  to  the  Scottish  churches.  Chalmers  was 
the  representative  and  leader  of  this  movement.  Its 
stress-point  was  the  "Crown  Rights  of  Christ"  and  the 
evangelical  freedom  of  the  church.  The  United  Free 
Church  is  its  ultimate  outcome.  In  connection  with  its 
enlarged  philanthropy  and  improved  hterary  quaUty, 
the  preaching  of  the  evangehcal  movement  had  some  new 
features  of  theological  interest.  But  its  fundamental 
theological  basis  remained  substantially  unchanged. 
Chalmers  and  his  school  continued  to  defend  Christianity 
upon  the  basis  of  its  external  evidences,  denying  the  com- 


SCOTTISH    PREACHING  295 

petence  of  human  reason  to  criticise  the  content  of  his- 
toric revelation,  although  acknowledging  its  competence 
to  apprehend  and  defend  its  e\ddences.  The  Chalmers 
school  belonged  substantially  to  the  eighteenth  century. 

The  Scottish  churches  have  been  somewhat  slow  to 
respond  to  new  movements  of  theologic  thought,  and  as  is 
the  case  with  most  of  the  churches  that  are  nominally 
anchored  to  the  Westminster  confession,  the  practical 
life  has  got  ahead  of  its  theoretic  or  reflective  life.  The 
historical  and  critical  movement,  which  entered  the  sphere 
of  theology  in  England  during  the  first  half  of  the  last  cen- 
tur>',  had  but  Httle  influence  upon  the  Scottish  pulpit, 
despite  the  new  interest  that  was  awakened  by  it  in  the 
sphere  of  Uterature.  GUmpses  of  a  more  spiritual  world 
of  thought,  and  of  a  more  experimental  and  practical 
method  of  defending  Christianity,  were  caught  by  a  few 
rare  men.  But  this  new  humanism  did  not  succeed  in 
modifying  fundamentally  the  doctrinal  position  of  the 
church.  Thomas  Erskine  and  McLeod  Campbell,  an- 
ticipating much  that  has  since  more  fully  developed, 
approached  Christianity  from  a  new  point  of  depar- 
ture and  ineffectually  undertook  to  do  for  Scotland  what 
Bushnell  a  Httle  later  did,  with  large  results,  for  New  Eng- 
land. But  the  old  Scottish  reahsm  still  held  the  field  and 
still  brought  its  contributions  to  the  Christianity  of  the 
Westminster  confession.  These  men  of  light  and  leading 
were  misunderstood,  and  were  sacrificed  to  the  theology 
of  a  past  age,  of  which  Professor  FHnt  says :  ^  "  Prodig- 
iously fertile  as  the  eighteenth  century  was  in  apologetic 
literature,  it  produced  only  one  treatise  of  note  on  the  in- 
ternal evidences,  and  it  is  said  to  have  been  suspected 
of  being  the  work  of  a  disguised  enemy."  Edward  Irving 
failed  to  interpret  rationally  the  philosophy  of  Coleridge 
and  lost  himself  in  fanaticism,  and  Norman  McLeod, 
one  of  the  manUest  and  most  Christian  of  Scottish 
^  Sermon,  "Present  Day  Christian  Apologetics,"  205. 


296  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

preachers,  was  distrusted  as  a  theological  latitudinarian 
who  had  done  much  harm  to  the  Calvinistic  faith. 

But  a  movement  in  the  direction  of  a  larger  estimate 
of  Christianity  has  appeared  in  our  age.  A  volume  of 
"Scotch  Sermons,"  issued  about  twenty-five  years  ago,  to 
which  some  of  the  prominent  leaders  of  the  established 
church  contributed,  doubtless  represents  "a  style  of  teach- 
ing which  increasingly  prevails  among  the  clergy  of  the 
Scottish  church."  It  will  receive  more  extended  notice 
farther  on.  It  represents  what  in  a  general  way  may 
be  called  the  modern  point  of  view.  It  would  not  in  our 
day  seem  unchristian  or  unreasonable  in  its  main  teach- 
ings, and  one  wonders  at  the  vigor  with  which  it  has  been 
attacked.  And  yet,  doubtless,  it  is  not  in  Une  with  the  pre- 
vaihng  theologic  attitude  of  the  Scottish  pulpit  as  a  whole. 
It  is  the  preachers  of  the  evangehcal  school,  who  are, 
after  a  sort,  theological  successors  of  the  Chalmers  school, 
whether  in  the  estabhshed  or  in  the  United  Free  churches, 
which  represent,  in  various  degrees  and  forms,  that  modi- 
fied theological  tendency  in  which  we  shall  find  most  fully 
the  prevaiUng  spirit  and  method  of  the  modem  Scotch  pulpit. 

The  evangeHstic  movement  of  a  few  years  ago,  in  Scot- 
land, under  Mr.  Moody,  drew  into  its  strong  current  some 
rare  men,  who  fully  shared  the  great  leader's  evangelistic 
zeal  and  cooperated  with  him  in  his  work,  but  who  also 
have  carried  into  the  churches  the  spirit  and  method  of  a 
new  theological  tendency,  which  has  broadened  the  in- 
tellectual and  spiritual  horizon,  enriching  the  thought-life 
of  the  church,  while  it  has  correspondingly  conserved  its 
evangehcal  piety.  It  is  a  most  fortunate  thing  for  the 
Scottish  churches,  for  which  the  Christian  world  may  be 
devoutly  thankful,  that  this  great  evangelistic  movement 
should  have  been  broadened  and  fertihzed  by  men  with 
the  modern  spirit  and  the  modern  culture,  and  that  it 
should  have  been  made  by  them  permanently  tributary 
to  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  Ufe  of  these  churches. 


SCOTTISH   PREACHING  297 


II. 

It  is  doubtless  already  understood  that  our  study  of 
Scottish  preaching  is  properly  hmited  to  the  Presbyterian 
churches,  for  here  we  find  its  most  characteristic  exem- 
pHfication,  There  have  been,  indeed,  and  there  still  are, 
able  and  distinguished  preachers  in  other  communions. 
Scottish  Episcopacy  discloses  some  of  the  marks  of  a  genu- 
ine apostohc  succession  m  the  preaching  of  some  of  its 
ministers,  and  Scottish  democracy  is  faithful  to  the  tra- 
ditions of  a  free  pulpit.  But  neither  the  Episcopal  nor 
the  democratic  church  order  has  found  in  Scotland  an  alto- 
gether congenial  ecclesiastical  atmosphere.  The  period 
of  the  gifted  and  saintly  Archbishop  Leighton  and  that 
of  the  learned  and  forceful  Wardlaw  of  Glasgow  and 
Alexander  of  Edinburgh  are  not  matched  in  our  day. 
It  is  the  estabhshed  and  United  Free  Presbyterian  churches 
that  furnish  the  most  distinctive  Scottish  homiletic  type. 

i.  It  is  a  noteworthy  fact  that  we  find  the  nearest  ap- 
proach to  modern  hberahsm,  not  in  the  preaching  of  the 
Free  churches,  but  in  that  of  the  estabhshment.  But  after 
all  it  is  not  strange  that  the  state  church  which  shekered 
the  moderatism  of  the  eighteenth  century  should  also 
shelter  the  Uberalism  of  the  twentieth,  and  it  may  in  a  sort 
illustrate  and  perhaps  vindicate  Professor  Knight's 
contention  ^  that  a  historic  church  in  alhance  with 
the  state  is  naturally  tolerant  of  diversities  of  theological 
behef,  and  that  with  new  Hght  it  will  naturally  promote 
modifications  in  theological  opinion,  while  remaining  itself 
unchanged  in  its  organization. 

It  was  this,  doubtless,  that  appealed  to  the  free  spirit 
of  Dr.  Norman  McLeod,  one  of  the  most  gifted  and  pro- 
foundly interesting  ministers  of  the  estabhshed  church. 
He  was  in  all  his  constitutional  tendencies  a  broad  church- 

*■  "Scotch  Sermons,"  103  S. 


298  THE    MODERN    PULPIT 

man,  and  by  the  quality  of  his  education  and  culture,  as 
well  as  by  the  circumstances  and  associations  of  his  life, 
he  was  committed  to  Christian  catholicity  and  breadth 
of  theological  basis.  The  influence  of  men  hke  McLeod 
Campbell  and  Thomas  Arnold  and  Frederick  Maurice 
upon  him  was  very  strong,  and  he  increased  in  largeness 
and  nobiUty  of  spirit  to  the  end.  Before  a  good  dogma- 
tician  he  never  bowed,  but  "before  a  good  Christian" 
always.  He  held  that  it  should  be  the  aim  of  every  church 
to  make  its  dogmatic  basis  that  of  the  church  catholic, 
and  that  a  church  is  catholic  only  when  it  can  embrace 
a  living  Christendom,  so  that  when  a  minister  is  deposed 
from  his  own  communion  he  is  thereby  deposed  from  the 
whole  church  and  when  he  is  welcomed  to  any  particular 
communion  he  may  find  standing  in  all  communions. 
He  Hved  in  most  friendly  intercourse  with  all  Christian 
churches,  affihating  freely  with  the  Methodists,  by  whom 
he  was  greatly  beloved  and  admired,  and  giving  himself 
in  intense  devotion  to  the  work  of  the  evangelical  alli- 
ance. He  was  much  more  concerned  about  the  sins  of 
the  church  —  its  covetousness,  its  worldliness,  schisms, 
and  strifes  —  than  about  its  doctrines.  Into  the  move- 
ments of  the  scientific  thought  of  his  day  he  entered 
with  enthusiasm  and  early  renounced  the  Calvinism 
of  his  church,  whose  grip  upon  him  had  never  been 
strong.  For  his  calHng  as  a  minister  he  had  an  ardent 
love,  and  in  his  many-sidedness  developed  aptitudes  for 
all  branches  of  its  service.  In  executive  force  he  was  pre- 
eminent, and  he  failed  in  no  line  of  philanthropic  efifort. 
To  the  cause  of  missions  he  was  especially  devoted,  and 
to  the  work  of  evangehsm  among  the  unchurched.  The 
founding  of  chapels,  of  Sunday-schools,  of  day  and 
night  schools,  tract  distribution,  temperance,  care  of  the 
poor,  penny-savings  banks  for  the  working  classes,  whose 
friend  preeminently  he  was,  all  solicited  his  interest  and 
evoked  his  administrative  skill.     He  was  a  man  of  broad 


SCOTTISH   PREACHING  299 

and  generous  culture,  of  distinct  literar}'  gifts,  with  a 
traineJ  eye  and  hand  for  artistic  work,  and  he  was 
a  poet  of  no  insignificant  vision  or  meagre  accom- 
phsliments.  To  the  development  of  these  gifts  the  influ- 
ence of  his  home,  constant  contact  with  cultivated  men, 
his  residence  in  Germany,  and  his  Enghsh  affiliations  were 
all  strongly  tributary.  The  influence  of  Coleridge,  both 
as  poet  and  philosopher,  was  one  of  the  determining 
factors  in  his  hfe,  and  above  all  the  influence  of 
Wordsworth,  whose  elevation  and  consecration  of  spirit 
strongly  impressed  itself  upon  him  and  whom  he  succeeded 
to  a  considerable  extent  in  introducing  to  the  attention  of 
the  Scottish  people.  In  his  love  of  friends  and  companions 
and  of  locahties  he  reminds  us  of  Charles  Kingsley  and  of 
Frederick  Maurice,  and  in  his  refined  and  dehcate  love 
of  nature  he  reminds  us  of  Frederick  Robertson.  His  piety 
was  ardent  and  devout.  In  his  sense  of  "the  awful  mercy 
of  God"  he  lived  a  thankful  and  humble  life,  but  was  bur- 
dened often  mth  a  sense  of  sin  as  he  brooded  upon  that 
mercy.  A  veritable  "  child  of  nature,"  he  still  Hved  as  in 
the  presence  of  God  and  with  open  \dsion  of  invisible  reali- 
ties and  knew  himself  as  the  child  of  God  and  rejoiced 
therein. 

The  personaHty  of  the  man  far  outreaches  in  its  signifi- 
cance the  work  he  did.  With  his  multifarious  gifts  and 
aptitudes,  he  failed  to  concentrate.  As  a  preacher  he 
never  reached  the  measure  of  Guthrie,  and  no  Scotchman 
ever  reached  the  measure  of  Chahners.  But  had  his 
interests  not  been  so  wide-reaching  and  so  varied, 
and  had  he  concentrated  upon  the  work  of  the  pulpit, 
he  might  have  left  the  record  of  one  of  the  most  powerful 
preachers  of  Scotland.  For  he  had. the  equipment  of  the 
pulpit  orator.  Not  only  substance  of  thought,  but  presence, 
voice,  and  hterary  style,  which  was  plain  and  direct,  yet 
fresh,  vivacious,  and  often  pictorial,  fitted  him  to 
reach    successfully    all    classes.       He    was   one    of  the 


300  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

favorite  chaplains  to  the  Queen,  but  to  the^  work- 
ing-men of  Glasgow  he  could  preach  with  telling  effect. 
He  held  evening  reUgious  services  for  working-men,  and 
on  the  Lord's  Day,  at  an  hour  before  the  regular  morning 
service,  he  met  these  Glasgow  workmen,  who  crowded  his 
church  to  hear  him  preach.  A  plain,  but  mightily  effective, 
sermon  on  the  character  of  Joseph  to  these  working-men, 
many  of  them  in  their  work  frocks,  at  this  early  hour  of 
service  is  a  memory  of  the  writer's  which  will  not  pass. 

Dr.  McLeod  has  left  almost  nothing  of  a  homiletic  sort 
that  adequately  reveals  his  power  as  a  preacher,  but  one 
may  discover  the  preacher  in  much  of  the  Hterary  work  that 
he  has  left  us. 

The  "Scotch  Sermons"  to  which  reference  has  already 
been  made  are  a  product  of  the  established  church,  and  they 
illustrate  the  theological  hberaUsm,  the  practical,  ethical 
spirit,  and  the  homiletic  freedom  of  the  modem  pulpit. 

In  some  of  these  discourses  one  finds  a  severe  arraign- 
ment of  the  harsh  theology  of  a  former  period,  and  of 
what  is  regarded  as  the  intellectual,  religious,  and  ecclesias- 
tical conventionality  of  the  Scottish  churches,  which  can- 
not be  altogether  pleasant  reading  to  those  who  are  wedded 
to  the  ancient  ways.  The  tone  of  repugnance  to  the 
dogmatic  principle  and  to  all  sacerdotalism,  priestcraft, 
and  ecclesiasticism  is  most  emphatic.  In  their  advocacy 
of  religious  individuaUsm  some  of  them  would  seem  de- 
cidedly extreme  to  one  who  holds  the  dogmatic  principle 
or  even  to  one  who  accepts  any  sort  of  external  religious 
authority.  It  may  also  freely  be  acknowledged  that  in 
their  insistence  upon  what  is  essential  in  religion, 
they  fail  to  recognize  adequately  the  value  of  its  external 
and  formal  aspects.  Upon  an  unprejudiced  and  discrimi- 
nating reader,  therefore,  there  is  often  left  an  impression 
of  inadequacy  or  of  one-sidedness,  rather  than  of  positive 
untruth.  Some  unreasonable  and  fallacious,  because  super- 
ficial and  undiscriminated,  things  are  said.     The  conten- 


SCOTTISH    PREACHING 


301 


tion,  for  example,  that  the  essential,  ethical  principle  of 
Pharisaism  consists  in  its  recognition  of  the  finitude  as 
distinguished  from  the  infinitude  of  duty  is  altogether 
superficial  and  misleading.*  Perhaps  the  most  misleading 
and  altogether  inadequate,  not  to  say  non- Christian,  dis- 
course in  the  volume  is  that  entitled  "The  Things  that 
cannot  be  Shaken."^  These  things  are  those  upon  which 
Kantian  naturahsm  lays  stress.  They  are  the  reality  of 
duty,  of  God,  and  of  immortality.  We  have  here  an 
illustration  of  the  utter  inadequacy  of  many  of  the  con- 
ceptions and  statements  as  to  what  is  permanent  in 
Christianity,  that  are  common  in  our  day.  They  do  not, 
in  fact,  touch  what  is  most  distinctive  in  Christianity, 
and  many  things  that  are  adduced  as  permanent  con- 
tain imphcitly  much  more  that  must  be  permanent, 
but  it  is  either  unrecognized  or  ignored  or  rejected. 
The  non-Christian  and  essentially  deistic  character  of 
this  sermon  is  its  fatal  defect.  The  attacks  upon 
certain  behefs  of  so-called  orthodoxy  are  doubtless 
justifiable,  but  these  behefs  are  not  of  the  essence  of 
true  orthodoxy,  much  less  of  true  Christianity.  This 
fact  is  ignored.  One  finds  here  a  tendency  to  minimize 
the  apologetic  value  of  miracles.  The  reahty  of  the 
miraculous  is  not  definitely  denied,  only  its  value  for  our 
day  is  questioned.  One  may  deny  the  miraculous  and  yet 
accept  Christianity.  Revelation  does  not  rest  upon  miracle 
but  miracle  upon  revelation.  The  Bible  is  authoritative 
because  it  is  true,  not  true  because  it  is  authoritative. 
In  indi\idual  behefs  the  individual  reason  is  ultimate 
authority.  Reason,  however,  is  not  the  conceptual 
or  speculative  understanding,  but  the  sum  total  of  all  the 
faculties  used  in  reaching  rational  and  moral  judgments. 
The  dogmatic  principle  is  summarily  rejected,  and  the  sub- 
jective, experimental,  individualistic  principle  is  set  o5 
against  it  and  accepted. 

'  Sennon  XVII,  273.  '  Sermon  XII,  194. 


302  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

Two  sermons  by  Dr.  Mackintosh,  "The  Law  of  Moral 
Continuity"  and  "The  Renovating  Power  of  Chris- 
tianity," although  made  needlessly  defective  by  the  ex- 
pression of  irrelevant  and  inconsequential  opinions,  are 
among  the  most  weighty  and  convincing  in  their  defence 
of  the  inevitableness  of  moral  penalty,  of  the  rational  and 
normal  character  of  moral  change,  and  in  their  exposi- 
tion of  the  august  truth  of  the  divine  forgiveness.  In  their 
general  point  of  view  and  their  prevailing  theological 
attitude  these  sermons  are  in  line  with  those  that  are  be- 
coming increasingly  common  in  all  our  Protestant  churches, 
and  despite  their  inadequacies  of  statement,  judged  by 
standards  that  are  accepted  by  many  of  the  evangeHcal 
churches,  even  in  Scotland  itself,  there  is  but  Uttle  here 
that  should  be  disquieting. 

They  deal  with  the  ethical  aspects  of  Christianity. 
They  direct  attention  to  the  divine  in  common  Ufe,  and 
advocate  a  type  of  rehgion  that  consists  in  doing  the  work 
of  Hfe  according  to  God's  will  as  Christ  did  it.  Disin- 
terested love  is  the  heart  of  the  Christian  life.  Our 
common  human  nature  is  the  most  adequate  revelation 
of  God,  and,  as  in  Christ  it  exists  in  ideal  form,  he  in  this 
ideal  humanity  is  the  only  perfect  revelation.  The  object 
of  Christianity  is  not  to  teach  correct  doctrine,  or  to 
regulate  religious  thinking,  but  to  reheve  every  form  of 
human  distress.  It  is  not  the  church  alone  that  represents 
this  work  of  reUef;  all  unselfish  philanthropists,  whether 
they  bear  the  Christian  name  or  not,  are,  in  some  worthy 
sort,  Christ's  successors,  are  doing  his  work,  and  belong 
to  his  kingdom.  Christianity,  although  fundamentally 
individuahstic,  as  deahng  primarily  with  individual  needs, 
appeals  to  what  is  common  and  human  and  avails  itself 
of  the  social  instincts.  Religious  knowledge  presupposes 
an  ethical  mind.  It  is  a  condition  of  the  hfe  of  the  soul. 
Righteousness  is  strictly  personal  and  cannot  be  imputed. 
True  religion  is  cathohc  in  spirit  and  in  its  love  of  truth 


SCOTTISH    PREACHING  303 

will  respect  the  results  of  all  scientific,  historical,  and  crit- 
ical investigation. 

There  is  in  these  discourses  nothing  of  that  elaborate- 
ness of  treatment  which  was  the  characteristic  of  the  preach- 
ing of  former  periods.  They  are  in  the  essay  style.  The 
didactic  interest  is  supreme  and  the  homiletic  form  is  of 
but  httle  importance.  The  Hterary  style  varies  of  course 
with  different  preachers.  In  general  it  is  straightforward 
and  plain,  without  any  effort  at  rhetorical  impression,  and 
is  appropriate  to  the  substance  and  object  of  the  sermons. 
They  bear  evidence  of  a  conscious  advocacy,  disclose  a 
theological  tendency,  were  written  for  the  most  part  to 
be  read,  and  the  literary  style  is  adapted  to  the  written 
rather  than  the  oral  product. 

Among  the  well-kno^^•n  preachers  and  teachers  that  ap- 
pear here  are  Principal  John  Caird  of  the  University  of 
Glasgow  and  Professor  William  Knight  of  the  University  of 
St.  Andrews.  Professor  Caird  has  long  been  known  as  "a 
great  Scotch  preacher."  More  than  a  generation  ago  he 
was  introduced  to  a  wide  circle  of  readers  in  a  sermon 
preached  before  the  Queen,  entitled  "Religion  in  Common 
Life."  It  evidently  met  at  that  time  a  real  want,  opening 
up  from  the  ethical  point  of  view  what  seemed  a  new  and 
broader  conception  of  the  Christian  hfe,  for  it  was  widely 
circulated  and  is  sometimes  catalogued  as  among  his  best- 
kno\\Ti  products. 

In  early  life  Professor  Caird  was  a  pastor  in  Glasgow, 
and  a  volume  of  sermons  represents  the  work  of  that  brief 
period.  They  are  of  the  pastoral  sort,  devoting  themselves 
directly  to  the  spiritual  interests  of  individual  hearers 
and  dealing  wholly  vrith  personal  religious  experience. 
They  belong  to  a  stirring  period  in  British  thought  and  life, 
but  give  no  evidence  of  the  influence  of  theological,  ecclesi- 
astical, and  social  questions  then  in  discussion,  and  bear 
no  trace  of  the  HegeHan  philosophy,  in  the  applica- 
tion of  which  to  the  interpretation  of  Christianity  he  sub- 


304  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

sequently  became  noted.  The  evangelical  note  is  positive 
and  strong,  suggesting  no  variation  from  the  traditional 
standards  of  orthodoxy  as  related  to  the  chief  doctrines 
of  Christianity,  such  as  the  incarnation,  the  divinity  of 
Christ,  and  the  atonement.  The  first  sermon  in  the  vol- 
ume, on  "The  Self-evidencing  Nature  of  Divine  Truth," 
is  a  judicious,  convincing  defence  of  the  thesis  that  Chris- 
tianity commends  itself  to  and  vindicates  itself  in  the  moral 
consciousness  by  disclosing  the  lost  ideal  of  manhood  and 
the  method  of  its  recovery.  In  this  and  in  other  discourses 
the  ethical  factor  in  our  knowledge  of  divine  things  re- 
ceives abundant  emphasis,  and  there  is  nothing  here  that 
would  not  readily  be  accepted  by  evangehcal  thinkers  of 
every  school. 

In  these  early  sermons  the  preacher  followed  the  well- 
approved  homiletic  methods  of  the  Scottish  pulpit  of  that 
day.  They  are  elaborately  wrought.  The  introductions 
are  characteristically  but  not  disproportionately  lengthy. 
The  themes  are  definitely  conceived  and  clearly  stated,  the 
final  sometimes  taking  the  place  of  the  causal  theme,  in 
which  the  object  rather  than  the  subject  of  the  discussion 
appears.  The  outUnes  are  orderly  and  well  defined,  and 
the  topics  are  secured  largely  by  an  analysis  of  the  subject 
and  are  statements  of  the  causes,  grounds,  or  reasons  which 
elucidate  it  by  presenting  the  rationale  of  it,  or  are  the 
unfoldings  of  various  aspects  in  which  the  subject  may  be 
contemplated.  Not  infrequently  the  negative  and  positive 
categories  are  used.  The  development  is  always  illus- 
trative, and  never  of  the  nature  of  abstract  discussion. 
As  didactic  methods,  contrast  and  comparison  abound,  and 
the  a  fortiori  process  and  appeal  are  not  infrequent.  In 
substance  the  thought  is  prevaihngly  philosophical,  al- 
though addressing  itself  directly  to  human  experience,  and 
is  almost  wholly  without  the  support  of  Biblical  or  other 
literary  citation.  In  illustrative  method  and  in  Hterary 
style  we  are  reminded  somewhat  of   Chalmers.     It  is  a 


SCOTTISH   PREACHING  30$ 

somewhat  dignified  and  stately  style.  The  sentences  are 
long  and  slow  of  movement.  Words  of  Latin  origin 
abound,  and  the  diction  is  in  general  in  line  with  what 
is  commonly  recognized  as  characteristic  of  Scottish  elo- 
quence. The  conclusions  are  appropriately  of  the  infer- 
ential sort,  ending  in  faithful  pastoral  appeal.  While 
evangelical  in  thought,  after  the  Scottish  standards,  these 
sermons  are  modern  in  spirit.  But  in  point  of  elabora- 
tion, in  lack  of  brevity  and  conciseness,  they  belong  to  a 
former  period,  and  in  this  regard  especially  they  are  in 
somewhat  striking  contrast  with  the  two  discourses  that 
appear  in  "Scotch  Sermons,"  the  first  two  in  the  volume, 
"Corporate  Immortahty"  and  "Union  with  God." 
There  is  no  evidence  in  these  latter  discourses  of  any 
departure  from  the  evangeUcal  faith.  If  there  be  a 
pantheistic  suggestiveness  about  them,  it  is  of  the 
Christian  sort.  In  both  the  author's  Hegelianism  is 
manifest  and  they  suggest  the  remarkable  facility  with 
which  this  philosophy  adjusts  itself  to  the  themes  in  dis- 
cussion. The  individual  man  appears  here  as  set  deep  in 
the  processes  of  human  development.  All  personality  has 
its  ultimate  ground  in  God,  and  realizes  or  fulfils  itself 
only  in  union  with  God,  and,  as  having  its  secondary  and 
immediate  ground  in  humanity,  it  also  realizes  itself  only 
in  union  with  humanity.  There  is  something  divine  in  man 
and  a  certain  infinitude  that  allies  him  with  Christ,  the  God- 
man.  All  this  is  wholesome  teaching,  and  if  the  Hegelian 
formula  adjusts  itself  to  it,  it  merits  no  reproach  thereby. 
The  treatment  throughout  is  illustrative,  and  analogy  is  the 
prevailing  didactic  method.  The  defect  of  the  discourse 
on  "  Corporate  Immortality"  is  not  in  its  positive  teachings, 
but  in  a  certain  failure  to  recognize  personal  existence 
as  an  end  to  itself,  and  in  what  seems  a  tendency  to  mini- 
mize the  significance  and  worth  of  personality.  In  the 
stress  that  is  laid  upon  the  loss  of  self  in  order  to  find  it, 
one  seems  to  detect  a  certain  inadequacy  and  one-sidedness. 


3o6  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

In  form  we  have  the  essay  style  and  without  elaboration. 
The  thought  is  large  and  weighty.  It  is  a  single  thought 
that  runs  through  the  discourse,  handled  illustratively 
in  the  unfolding,  not  building,  process  and  the  dicdon  is 
elevated  to  match  the  thought.  The  teaching  is  broadly 
Christian,  is  quite  in  hne  with  the  rehgious  thought  of  our 
time,  and  is  worthy  of  the  learning,  piety,  and  distinguished 
ability  of  the  honored  author. 

Professor  Knight,  of  the  Chair  of  Moral  Philosophy  at 
St.  Andrews,  discusses  "Conservation  and  Change''  and 
"The  Continuity  and  Development  of  Religion."  In  the 
former  discourse  we  have  a  defence  of  the  national  church 
as  a  conserving  force  in  theological  changes.  In  the  latter 
we  find  a  frank  recognition  of  the  unsettled  state  of  theo- 
logical thought.  The  discourse  is  an  advocacy  of  the 
view  that  rehgion  must  develop  subjectively  in  a  historical 
process  from  lowest  to  highest  forms,  that  to  this  subjective 
answers  an  objective  reahty,  and  that  in  this  historic  move- 
ment the  supernatural  emerges  in  a  process  of  revelation. 
Here,  too,  as  always  in  this  volume,  we  find  a  distinct  de- 
parture from  the  formal  methods  of  the  Scottish  pulpit  in 
the  prevalence  of  the  essay  style.  It  would  seem  that  the 
liberal  movement  has  reached  and  strongly  influenced 
the  pastorate  of  the  estabUshed  churches,  for  these 
"Scotch  Sermons"  are  for  the  most  part  from  men  in 
pastoral  life  and  but  few  of  them  are  from  preachers  in 
the  schools  of  theology.  There  are,  however,  many  pastors 
of  the  first  rank  and  many  theological  teachers  who 
represent  the  more  conservative  and  less  aggressive  ten- 
dency. 

Among  the  prominent  theological  teachers  of  this  ten- 
dency should  be  mendoned  Professor  Fhnt  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Edinburgh,  one  of  the  ablest  and  best  known  theo- 
logians of  Scotland.  There  is  nothing  that  is  extreme  in 
his  conservatism.  Indeed,  his  point  of  view,  as  disclosed 
in  his  address  entitled  "  Some  Requirements  of  the  Present- 


SCOTTISH   PREACHING  307 

day  Christian  Apologetics,"  ^  is  in  many  respects  modem 
and  would  indicate  a  material  modification  in  his  method  of 
approaching  the  problems  of  theology,  if  not  in  his  interpre- 
tation of  the  symbols  of  his  church.  This  address  is  a  valu- 
able summary  of  stress  points  in  methods  of  apology  that  are 
adapted  to  the  needs  of  our  time.  The  comprehensiveness 
and  balance  of  the  discussion  are  its  most  notable  features. 
It  lays  due  emphasis  upon  different  classes  of  evidence,  — 
the  experimental,  the  historical,  and  the  rational, — and  ac- 
cepts no  one  as  of  itself  adequate  for  a  scientific  apologetic. 
Neither  the  evidentialists,  like  those  of  the  eighteenth 
centurv,  who  rely  upon  objective  evidences,  nor  the  modem 
idealists,  who  rely  wholly  upon  subjective  evidences,  nor 
the  Biblical  traditionahsts,  who  defend  the  historic  faith  by 
appeal  to  inspired  documents,  are  accepted  as  in  their 
methods  meeting  the  needs  of  our  time.  His  insistence 
upon  scientific  methods  in  investigating  the  Scriptures 
is  a  valuable  counterweight  to  the  dogmatism  of  the 
traditionalists,  and  his  advocacy  of  unconditional  hos- 
pitality to  the  well- ascertained  results  of  the  scientific 
investigation  of  nature  and  of  a  rational  psychology  and 
metaphysics,  is  a  valuable  counterweight  to  the  extremes 
of  modern  idealism. 

Professor  Flint's  volume  of  sermons,  consisting  of  occa- 
sional discourses  preached  to  exceptionally  intelUgent 
audiences,  suggests  the  gifts  of  the  teacher  rather  than 
of  the  preacher.  Those  that  were  addressed  to  students 
disclose  especially  the  wisdom  and  the  sympathy  of  the 
rehgious  guide.  With  the  teachings  of  his  church  in  its 
most  important  aspects  he  is  apparently  in  harmony,  but 
we  are  confronted  here  wath  no  ultra- conservatism,  and 
orthodoxy  in  his  hands  manifestly  holds  itself  tributary  to 
Christian  intelligence,  piety,  and  morality.  There  is 
nothing  in  the  sermons  that  is  especially  striking  or  im- 
pressive save  a  certain  religious  devoutness  of  tone.     They 

*  "Sermons  and  Addresses,"  1899,  299. 


308  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

affect  no  novelties.  They  present  the  commonplaces  of 
Christian  truth  in  a  serious  and  sympathetic  manner,  but 
without  the  freshness  and  suggestiveness  of  thought  which 
we  have  learned  to  expect  from  the  Scottish  preacher,  and 
they  lack  his  fine  literary  touch  and  rhetorical  forcefulness. 
We  are  not  able  to  forget  that  we  are  in  contact  with  a 
theologian.  But  they  are  eminently  discriminating  and 
judicious  and  above  all  Christian  sermons.  The  method 
of  treatment  is  in  general  textual,  even  verbally  textual, 
deahng  often  minutely  with  stress  words.  The  diction  is 
simple  and  clear  and  matches  well  the  discriminating 
quality  of  the  thought,  and  the  sincerity  and  moral  so- 
briety and  dignity  and  reUgious  devoutness  of  the  preacher 
are  everywhere  apparent.  If  the  interest  he  has  awakened 
and  the  impression  he  has  made  as  a  theological  thinker 
are  not  especially  increased  by  this  volume,  they  are  not 
at  all  diminished. 

ii.  In  the  United  Free  church,  especially  in  the  old  Free 
church  of  the  Disruption,  the  church  of  Chalmers  and 
Guthrie,  Cunningham  and  Candlish,  and  in  the  United 
Presbyterian  church,  the  church  of  Cairns  and  Ker,  is 
found  a  large  group  of  interesting  and  able  preachers.  It 
may  seem  strange  that  one  should  pass  in  silence  the 
greatest  preacher  Scotland  has  produced,  and  one  almost 
needs  to  justify  one's  self  in  so  doing.  But  Dr.  Chalmers  is 
probably  better  known  to  the  Christian  world  than  any 
other  Scottish  preacher.  Besides,  with  all  his  influence  in 
some  ways  upon  the  modem  world,  he  belongs  to  a  past 
age.  He  belongs  essentially  to  the  eighteenth  century, 
and  it  is  our  purpose  to  deal  for  the  most  part  with  those 
who  have  been  to  a  considerable  extent  subject  to  modem 
influences.  These  modern  preachers  of  the  United  Free 
churches  combine  in  an  admirable  manner  the  evangehcal, 
the  scientific,  and  the  literary  spirit,  and  they  represent 
what  is  best  in  the  Scottish  preaching  of  our  day.  They 
seem  not  to  have  developed  what  might  be  called  latitudi- 


SCOTTISH  PREACHING  309 

narianism  or  radical  tendencies  to  the  extent  that  some  of 
the  preachers  of  the  estabhshed  church  have  done.  But  if 
Norman  McLeod  were  living  to-day,  his  dread  of  being 
brought  into  dogmatic  servitude  by  the  Free  churches 
w^ould  probably  wholly  vanish.  If  their  preachers  have 
not  more  fully  than  those  of  the  estabhshed  church  ap- 
propriated the  results  of  modem  Bibhcal  scholarship,  for 
pulpit  use,  they  at  least  seem  to  have  done  so  in  a  more 
practical  and  concrete  and  cautious  and  conservative 
manner.  These  results  have  certainly  been  introduced 
into  the  pulpit  very  freely  and  yet  in  a  manner  wholly  con- 
sonant \\ath  the  evangehcal  habit  of  mind,  and  with  the 
evangelistic  interest.  These  churches  are,  therefore,  rich 
in  helpful  Bibhcal  preachers  of  a  somewhat  new,  fresh 
type.  Alany  of  the  Free  church  preachers  who  have  in  an 
unusual  degree  the  ear  of  the  pubhc  and  are  well  known 
we  must  pass  mthout  reference.  Two  of  them,  however, 
should  be  mentioned. 

Dr.  A.  B.  Davidson  was  one  of  the  most  distinctive  of 
this  class  of  preachers.  His  volume  of  expository,  bio- 
graphical sermons,  dealing  with  Bibhcal  characters,  and 
entitled  "The  Called  of  God,"  is  in  its  substance  of  thought 
one  of  the  most  refreshing  and  helpful  products  of  this  type 
of  preaching  that  has  been  issued  in  late  years,  and  not 
the  less  impressive  is  it  in  its  tone,  or  interesting  in  its 
method,  or  attractive  in  its  diction. 

He  was  for  forty  years  a  teacher  of  Hebrew  in  the  theo- 
logical department  of  the  University  of  Edinburgh.  For 
a  short  time  he  was  a  student  under  Ewald,  and  there  seems 
to  be  internal  evidence  that  Ewald  continued  to  be  his 
teacher  through  those  volumes  of  his  that  so  attractively 
interpret  the  genius  of  Hebrew  hterature.  The  humanistic 
and  the  s>Tnpathetic  manner  in  which  he  enters  into  the 
study  and  the  graphic  manner  in  which  he  interprets  the 
lives  of  Bibhcal  personages  suggest  the  influence  upon 
Davidson  of  this  great  scholar.     In  the  scholarship  which 


310  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

he  brought  to  his  work,  and  the  sj-mpathetic  humanity, 
the  reHgious  feeling,  and  the  Uterary  skill  which  he  threw 
into  it,  he  became  a  teacher  of  rare  power  of  inspiration. 
He  was  not  what  may  be  called  a  popular  preacher,  nor 
as  a  preacher  was  he  widely  knoviai.  Yet  the  gifts  that 
made  him  so  eminently  successful  as  a  teacher  fitted  him 
in  hke  degree  for  the  type  of  preaching  in  which  he  was 
equally  successful.  He  was  an  occasional  preacher,  who 
had  never  entered  the  pastorate  and  who  always  preferred 
the  rural  to  the  metropolitan  pulpit  as  the  most  ap- 
propriate sphere  for  his  modest  self-estimate.  But  his 
shyness  and  reserve,  as  is  not  infrequently  the  case,  only 
enhanced  his  attractiveness  and  impressiveness  as  a 
preacher  to  thoughtful  people,  and  a  strain  of  sadness  and 
of  sympathy  with  the  most  serious  and  sombre  aspects  of 
human  Hfe  contributed  a  certain  pathos  to  his  utterance, 
and  enhanced  his  power  as  an  interpreter  of  Bibhcal  char- 
acters. With  all  his  personal  reserve  and  seeming  remote- 
ness, he  had,  as  is  so  frequently  the  case  with  great 
preachers,  the  gift  of  self-revelation  in  the  pulpit,  and 
although  averse  to  pastoral  hfe  he  was  eminently  a  pastoral 
preacher,  as  deahng  with  those  themes  that  edify  and  as 
touching  those  conditions  of  human  experience  with  which 
successful  pastoral  preaching  concerns  itself.  In  making 
Bibhcal  personahties  and  their  experiences  speak  to  the 
deepest  and  most  characteristic  wants  of  modern  hfe  he 
had  rare  skill.  Large  truths  are  opened  up  that  touch  the 
depths  of  human  existence,  and  in  such  concrete  manner 
as  gives  them  ready  access  to  the  soul.  A  serious  sense 
of  hfe's  mystery  brings  him  deeply  into  sympathy  with 
the  characters  and  experiences  with  which  he  deals  and 
leads  him  into  fellowship  with  all  those  who  in  our  day 
have  a  corresponding  sense  of  mystery  and  perplexity. 
It  was  this  tendency  to  penetrate  the  sombre  and  mysterious 
aspects  of  human  hfe  that  fitted  him  preeminently  to 
interpret  the  book  of  Job,  which  he  undertook,  but,  for 


SCOTTISH   PREACHING  311 

some  reason,  possibly  a  sense  of  unfitness,  never  finished, 
leaving  us  only  that  which  suggests  what  might  have  been 
perhaps  one  of  the  completes!  and  most  attractive  and 
helpful  of  all  modern  expositions  of  the  great  drama. 

The  discourses  above  referred  to  have  for  their  subjects 
some  of  the  most  prominent  Old  Testament  characters  and 
a  few  of  the  most  interesting  New  Testament  characters. 
His  analysis  of  the  character  of  Saul  is  striking  and  master- 
ful. He  pierces  the  centre.  Saul  is  conceived  as  a  mis- 
placed man,  a  man  of  rare  native  gifts,  but  without  the 
great,  chief  gift,  the  gift  for  rehgion.  This  fatal  lack  un- 
fitted him  for  his  place  and  work  and  brought  his  do'WTi- 
fall.  The  analysis  of  the  character  of  Thomas,  too,  is 
interesting  and  somewhat  novel.  He  is  not  the  man  whose 
critical  activities,  according  to  the  common  estimate,  dom- 
inate his  spiritual  susceptibilities.  It  is  excess  of  emotion 
that  dominates  his  intellectual  activities.  His  scepticism 
is  not  that  of  the  intellect.  It  has  its  genesis  in  excess  of 
sentiment,  of  feehng  and  imagination.  The  skill  with 
which  such  novel  views  are  propounded  and  illustrated 
leaves  a  strong  impression,  whether  they  command  our 
mental  judgment  or  not.  Great  depth  of  moral  and  reli- 
gious earnestness  is  disclosed  by  these  discourses,  and  the 
seriousness  with  which  the  preacher  stands  before  the  au- 
gust problems  of  human  Hfe  reminds  us  of  the  high  church- 
man of  whom  Canon  Mozley  is  an  illustration.  Large- 
ness in  the  handUng  of  the  material  of  thought,  an  economic 
grasp  of  the  central  realities  of  his  subjects,  and  a  fine 
literary  touch  in  which  we  have  a  suggestive  use  of  the 
imagination,  disclose  in  Dr.  Davidson  some  of  the  choicest 
gifts  of  the  expository  preacher.  The  outlines  of  the 
discourses  are  sufficiently  clear,  but  in  their  method  they 
suggest  the  teacher  rather  than  the  preacher.  They  are 
not  in  sermon  form  and  make  no  efi;ort  to  conform  to  the 
best  approved  and  most  effective  homiletic  standards. 
But  the  author's  insight  into  the  characters  with  which  he 


312  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

deals,  his  knowledge  of  his  own  age,  and  his  sense  of,  and 
sympathy  with,  those  human  experiences  that  touch  the 
depths  of  life,  reveal  the  choice  gifts  of  the  preacher  and 
would  speak  to  us  forcefully  in  any  form.  In  the  hterary 
style  there  is  a  quahty  of  freshness,  a  simpHcity,  clearness, 
manliness,  a  frequent  felicity  in  the  choice  of  words,  a 
grace  of  movement  combined  with  the  vigor  of  directness, 
that  secure  attractiveness  and  master  attention.  The 
countenance  of  the  preacher,  as  it  appears  once  or  twice 
in  the  volume,  is  winsome,  suggestive  at  once  of  thoughtful- 
ness,  seriousness,  iirmness,  and  humor.  It  is  said  that  Dr. 
Davidson's  liturgical  gifts,  as  is  generally  the  case  with 
Scottish  preachers,  were  commensurate  with  his  homiletic 
gifts.  His  conduct  of  pubhc  worship  was  marked  by  an 
earnestness,  humihty,  reverence,  devoutness,  sympathy, 
simplicity,  and  a  confidential  freedom,  wholly  consonant 
with  dignity,  that  at  once  disclose  the  secret  of  the  fact 
that  the  best- trained  Scottish  preachers  are  easily  able  in 
the  service  of  worship  to  dispense  with  fixed  and  permanent 
forms. 

Professor  George  Adam  Smith,  the  friend,  colaborer, 
and  biographer  of  Drummond,  is  justly  recognized  as  one 
of  the  most  gifted  preachers  as  well  as  teachers  of  Scotland. 
Not  only  the  volume  of  sermons  on  a  variety  of  interesting 
subjects  dating  back  to  the  period  of  his  active  ministry 
in  the  church  that  were  published  last  year,  but  the  ex- 
ceedingly attractive  and  helpful  work  on  the  Book  of 
Isaiah,  illustrate  the  value,  not  for  the  preacher  alone  but 
for  the  teacher  as  well,  of  a  decade  or  more  of  experience 
in  pastoral  life.  Professor  Smith's  Bibhcal  work  discloses 
first  of  all,  of  course,  the  spirit  of  the  scholar,  but  hardly 
less  the  spirit  of  the  preacher.  And  these  discourses,  while 
they  disclose  preeminently  the  pastoral  spirit,  reveal  also 
the  scholar.  Results  of  Biblical  study  are  incorporated  in 
his  treatment  of  his  themes  in  a  very  fruitful  manner. 
Fearless  as  he  is  in  his  critical  estimate  of  the  ethical  con- 


SCOTTISH   PREACHING  313 

tents  of  portions  of  the  Old  Testament,  he  is  no  destructive 
critic.  "There  are  certain  features,"  he  says,  "which 
neither  the  reason  nor  the  conscience  of  many  of  us  will 
readily  accept."  ^  But  in  all  his  critical  estimates  he 
would  conserve  a  more  genuine  reverence  for  the  Bible, 
and  his  apprehension  of  the  worth  of  its  religious  teachings 
and  his  iaterpretation  of  their  practical  moral  import 
are  just,  discriminating,  positive,  and  clear.  Of  exceptional 
value  are  the  biographical  discourses  on  "Esau,"  the  two 
on  "Gideon,"  and  those  of  a  semiexpository  character, 
like  "The  Song  of  the  Well"  and  "The  Good  Samaritan." 
Not  only  a  ready  insight  into  the  subjects  discussed  is 
revealed  but  great  skill  in  the  analytic  handling  of  the 
material.  Fresh  aspects  open  before  us  as  we  follow  the 
preacher  in  the  unfolding  of  his  Biblical  themes  and  we 
are  left  in  possession  of  most  unex-pected  and  most  helpful 
lessons.  "The  Song  of  the  Well"  is  fehcitously  sug- 
gestive of  the  honor  that  is  due  what  men  regard  as  the 
commonplace  and  the  inglorious  reahties  of  life.  Such 
discourses  in  the  hands  of  such  an  interpreter  illustrate 
the  vast  resources  for  the  preacher  of  the  Old  Testament 
as  it  is  laid  open  to  us  by  modem  Biblical  studies.  Their 
evangelical  quaHty,  so  simple  and  genuine,  so  wholly  free 
from  all  cant  and  conventionality,  is  also  an  element  of 
strength.  The  preacher  does  not  obscure  or  ignore  the 
dark  fact  of  human  sin,  and  his  utterances  with  respect  to 
it  are  fearless  and  faithful.  The  rational  and  ethical  as- 
pects of  the  atonement  are  fully  recognized  and  their 
significance  for  a  practical  Christian  life  are  pointed  out. 
In  a  very  simple,  practical,  and  effective  way  this  is  dis- 
cussed in  the  sermon  entitled  "The  Two  Wills."  The 
true  conception  of  the  forgiveness  of  sin  is  the  theme  of 
the  first  sermon,  from  which  the  volume  takes  its  title. 
The  basis  of  forgiveness  in  the  perfect  sacrifice  of  Christ 
is  not  essential  to  the  discussion.     But  so  important  is  it 

*  "  The  Forgiveness  of  Sin,"  193. 


314  THE   MODERN    PULPIT 

in  the  apprehension  of  the  preacher  that,  in  the  interest 
of  truth  and  of  the  needs  of  his  hearers,  he  is  constrained 
to  touch  upon  it  in  both  introduction  and  conclusion,  and 
no  merely  homiletic  considerations  are  sufficient  to  restrain 
him.  The  surprises  of  thought  that  constantly  meet 
us  are  attractive  features  of  the  volume.  Fehcitous  and 
highly  suggestive  thoughts  which  disclose  the  ingenuity 
of  the  preacher  are  all  the  while  turning  up.  Themes  are 
occasionally  deduced  from  texts  in  such  way  as  to  surprise 
us,  although  there  is  in  general  nothing  far  fetched  or 
remote.  To  deduce  from  Ps.  xix.  9,  "The  Fear  of  the 
Lord  is  clean,  enduring  for  ever,"  the  somewhat  remote 
inferential  thought  of  the  "Moral  Character  of  the  Bible  " 
may  be  a  doubtful  homiletic  advantage,  however  justifiable 
exegetically,  since  a  better  text  for  this  theme  could  prob- 
ably be  found.  But  the  process  has  its  homiletic  as  well 
as  exegetical  justification,  and  certainly  has  the  merit  of 
setting  at  defiance  the  commonplace  and  obvious.  "The 
Good  Samaritan"  is  in  its  entire  treatment  an  excellent 
illustration  of  homiletic  ingenuity  and  of  these  homiletic 
surprises.  In  vivacity  of  thought,  in  a  certain  pungency 
of  diction,  in  cleverness  of  exposition  and  of  suggestion, 
it  is  one  of  the  best  sermons  in  the  volume.  The  theo- 
logical teacher  who  recognizes  the  fact  that  the  truth  is 
worth  just  what  it  can  do  for  us  will  be  a  preacher.  The 
practical  character  of  Professor  Smith's  preaching  discloses 
the  true  spirit  of  the  preacher.  A  serious  tone  pervades 
it.  The  tragic  character  of  human  life  is  never  obscured 
or  ignored.  "While  ye  have  the  Light"  has  caught  the 
very  tones  of  Jesus  as  he  uttered  the  words.  A  Hke  tone  is 
found  in  other  sermons.  The  preacher  discloses  a  definite 
moral  purpose  to  drive  the  truth  home  to  the  heart  and 
conscience  and  to  make  it  productive  in  character  and 
conduct.  It  is  this  quality  that  secures  for  the  preaching 
of  the  Free  churches  of  Scotland,  as  of  England,  an  excep- 
tional impressiveness  and  effectiveness.      The  method  of 


SCOTTISH   PREACHING  315 

approach  to  the  hearer  is  along  the  pathway  of  experience, 
and  this  secures  for  the  preaching  the  note  of  reahty. 
In  the  discussion  of  the  dilhcuk  subject  of  prayer,  instead 
of  following  the  theoretic  or  abstract  method,  the  preacher 
chooses  the  concrete  and  experimental  method,  and  makes 
the  subject  turn  upon  our  Lord's  example  in  prayer. 
This  is  his  appeal  in  testing  its  reality  and  worth.  His 
interest  in  the  social  problems  of  modern  hie,  in  which 
the  best  Scottish  preachers  have  the  lead,  is  variously 
manifest,  but  especially  in  the  sermon  "The  Moral  ]Mean- 
ing  of  Hope,"  which  in  its  strength  of  moral  impressive- 
ness  is  of  exceptional  value. 

In  the  character  of  the  outhnes  of  these  sennons  there 
is  a  notable  variety.  Some  have  well-defined  boundary' 
marks,  and  the  whole  course  of  thought  traversed  is  taken 
in  at  once  and  securely  held.  In  others  they  fail.  But  the 
arrangement  is  always  logical  and  the  discussion  is  always 
followed  without  perplexity.  There  is  no  stereotyped 
method.  Each  sermon  has  its  own  order,  unfolding  itself 
from  within,  and  is  the  more  interesting  for  this  reason. 
The  directness  of  approach  to  the  audience  and  the  rapidity 
of  approach  to  the  subject,  is  in  general  noteworthy,  par- 
ticularly so  in  "The  Forgiveness  of  Sin,"  "Temptation," 
"The  Two  Wills,"  and  in  the  biographical  sermons.  To 
get  into  close  quarters  with  the  subject  without  unnecessary 
delay  and  into  quick  touch  with  the  hearer  is  the  manifest 
purpose  of  the  preacher.  If  the  approach  is  slow  and 
dehberate,  it  is  because  the  subject  demands  it. 

The  simplicity,  the  thoughtful,  reflective  quality  and 
the  occasional  vivacity  of  the  style,  with  a  not  infrequent 
idiomatic  homehness  of  diction  are  features  of  attrac- 
tiveness. It  is  as  simple  as  the  language  of  personal  con- 
ference, preeminently  colloquial  and  plain,  and  when  in- 
chnation  prompts  deliberately  homely,  but  thoughtful  as 
the  style  of  a  man  who  is  accustomed  to  think  through  and 
out  what  he  would  say ;  and  the  ease  and  freedom,  as  of 


3l6  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

discourse  that  says  itself,  and  is  not  dependent  upon  the 
force  pump  either  from  within  or  from  without,  impress 
themselves  upon  the  reader  at  once.  The  Free  churches 
of  Scotland,  not  less  than  those  of  England,  are  to  be  con- 
gratulated upon  the  gift  of  men  who  know  well  how  to 
make  tributar}'  their  scholarly  acquisitions  and  their  literary 
culture  to  the  interpretation  of  the  great  realities  of  the 
Gospel  of  Redemption  and  to  the  higher  moral  and  reli- 
gious welfare  of  men. 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES      317 


THE   PREACHING    OF   THE    UNITED   STATES 

In  passing  from  the  British  to  the  American  pulpit  we 
find  ourselves  in  the  same  general  homiletic  world,  although 
one  that  is  somewhat  more  complex  and  varied.  The 
marks  of  its  English  origin  and  of  English  influence  still 
measurably  linger  with  it.  In  the  early  period  these 
influences  were  of  course  more  direct  and  more  potent 
than  now,  because  of  the  closer  ecclesiastical  connection 
of  the  churches  and  the  closer  political  relations  of  the 
people  with  the  mother  country.  But  there  is  much  that 
the  two  countries  still  share  in  common,  and  that  has  had 
result  in  the  promotion  and  perpetuation  of  the  same 
general  type  of  preaching  in  diflerent  communions.  There 
are  not  only  the  common  ecclesiastical  sources  and  tra- 
ditions, but  the  common  Anglo-Saxon  temperament  and 
mental  habit  and  a  common  language  and  literature. 
There  are  like  industrial  and  commercial  conditions,  a 
hke  pohtical  spirit,  a  not  altogether  dissimilar  type  of  poHt- 
ical  institutions,  all  of  which  largely  affects  the  education 
of  the  people  and  is  largely  determinative  of  the  character 
of  the  church  problems  with  which  the  preacher  deals. 
There  are  corresponding  types  of  church  poHty,  similar 
methods  of  church  administration,  and  there  is  continuous 
and  ever  increasing  friendly  intercourse.  The  results  of 
all  these  interactionary  influences  are  seen  in  the  work  of 
the  pulpit.  We  very  readily  detect  the  influence  of  the 
Anglican  pulpit  in  the  preaching  of  the  American  Epis- 
copal church,  and  the  influence  of  English  nonconformity 


3i8  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

upon  the  preaching  of  our  nonHturgical  churches  is  also 
in  some  measure  manifest.  All  those  leading  influences, 
moreover,  that  have  become  a  common  possession  of  the 
age,  and  that  have  passed  into  and  through  the  experiences 
of  the  two  peoples  and  especially  that  have  gotten  them- 
selves reflected  in  their  hteratures,  have  combined  in  the 
furthering  of  a  common  result.  Much  that  is  best  in 
American,  equally  with  the  best  in  Enghsh,  preaching 
bears  the  traces  of  this  common  influence.  But  all  such 
external  influences,  although  finding  a  ready  response 
among  the  American  people  in  an  age  of  comprehension, 
work  necessarily  under  local  conditions.  As  a  result, 
therefore,  American  preaching  is  much  more  distinctive 
in  its  characteristics,  bearing  more  fully  the  mark  of  local 
*  and  temporal  conditions  than  in  the  eariier  period,  and 
takes  the  impress  of  a  rapidly  developing  and  changing 
national  Hfe.  Some  of  these  qualities,  which,  although 
English  in  lineage,  and  participant  in  the  common  life  of 
the  age,  may  be  called  distinctively  American,  and  are 
illustrated  in  various  forms  and  degrees  in  difterent  ecclesi- 
astical communions,  let  us  consider. 

I. 

i.  A  high  valuation  of  the  preacher's  place  and  a  high 
estimate  of  his  function,  which  are  an  inheritance  from  our 
British  ancestors,  have  always  been,  and  in  good  measure 
still  are,  characteristic  of  the  better  classes  of  the  American 
people.  All  this  is  modified  by  their  democratic  spirit, 
by  their  practical  business  instincts  and  habits,  and  by  the 
increasing  superficiahty  of  American  life.  And  on  the 
whole  the  place  and  work  of  the  preacher  are  not,  in  the 
,  formal  sense  at  least,  so  highly  respected  in  the  United 
States  as  in  Great  Britain.  But  in  any  great  emergency 
affecting  the  moral  welfare  of  the  people,  in  any  great 
crisis  in  pubHc  affairs,  it  is  the  American  preacher  that  is 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        319 

likely  to  come  to  the  front,  that  makes  himself  felt,  and 
that  not  infrequently  takes  the  place  of  leader.  In  all  great 
reforms  the  ministry  have  had  and  still  have  a  prominent 
place.  And  in  all  this  it  is  not  merely  the  man  that  avails, 
although  personal  manhood  will  always  command  the 
respect  of  the  American  people,  but  it  is  the  place  and 
function  as  well.  Most  of  our  churches  inherit  the  tradi- 
tions of  a  Christianity  that  speaks  to  the  mind  through  the 
ear,  and  that  demands  effective  oral  interpretation  and 
advocacy.  The  larger  number  of  our  homiletic  ancestors 
were  trained  in  the  school  of  an  independent  and  virile 
Protestantism,  and  their  descendants,  sharing  in  good 
measure  their  respect  for  truth  and  for  a  free,  prophetic 
proclamation  of  it,  have  sought  in  their  own  way  to  per- 
petuate their  inheritance  in  the  new  world. 

It  is  true  that  the  Episcopal  church  has  developed  the 
hturgical  interest  somewhat  at  cost,  perhaps,  of  the  homi- 
letic. The  hturgist  has  doubtless  limited  somewhat  the 
influence  and  power  of  the  preacher.  Here,  as  elsewhere, 
we  recognize  Anghcan  tendencies.  American  Episcopacy 
has,  therefore,  been  in  general  less  independent  in  its 
development  than  those  churches  that  originated  in  English 
dissent,  and  attained  to  a  somewhat  distinctive  character 
before  they  sought  to  perpetuate  themselves  in  the  new 
world.  There  has  been,  however,  a  very  decided  change 
and  a  distinct  improvement  in  the  preaching  of  the  Epis- 
copal church,  especially  within  the  last  generation,  and  there 
is  manifest  a  higher  estimate  of  the  preacher's  function. 
Some  of  the  most  gifted  and  edifying  preachers  of  the 
country  are  to  be  found  in  the  Episcopal  church,  and  its 
influence,  by  the  culture  of  the  liturgical  mind  and  by  the 
example  of  practical  effectiveness  in  philanthropic  enter- 
prise in  behalf  of  the  unblessed  classes  in  modifying  the 
excesses  of  the  didactic  homiletic  mind  that  have  so  long 
borne  sway  in  some  of  our  nonliturgical  churches,  should 
be  gratefully  acknowledged.     A  fuller  recognition  of  the 


320  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

necessity  of  enriching  and  enlarging  the  worship  of  our 
churches,  and  of  adjusting  our  preaching  and  our  church 
administration  to  the  more  varied  needs  of  the  people,  is 
associated  with  this  modification.  Other  agencies  have 
been  at  work,  whose  sources  have  already  been  traced. 
They  have  appeared  in  the  political,  industrial,  and  com- 
mercial Hfe  of  the  people,  in  education  and  Hterature,  in 
the  intellectual  and  ethical  revolt  of  liberalism  so  called, 
and  in  the  spiritual  revolt  of  Methodism.  All  these  agencies 
have  wrought  an  enrichment  and  enlargement  of  the 
conception,  not  only  of  the  preacher's  task  but  of  the  proper 
scope  of  pastoral  and  parochial  activities,  and  a  consequent 
recognition  of  the  need  of  a  more  broadly  and  variously 
trained  ministry.  The  newspaper  and  the  periodical 
press  and  other  forms  of  modem  hterature  have,  in  this 
country  especially,  been  tributary  to  a  modification  in  the 
popular  estimate  of  the  significance  and  importance  of  the 
preacher's  work,  and  as  a  consequence  the  American  pulpit, 
as  is  of  course  true  everywhere,  has  not  the  prominence,  as 
,an  educative  agency,  or  at  least  the  sort  of  prominence,  it 
once  had.  But  it  is,  after  all,  still  the  American  habit  to 
assign  to  the  pulpit  an  important  place  in  the  Hfe  of  the 
church,  and,  despite  the  criticism  to  which  it  has  been  sub- 
jected,—  criticism  sometimes  just  and  sound,  but  often  un- 
just and  shallow,  —  it  continues  to  be,  as  it  always  must  be 
in  a  repubhc  where  Christianity  is  still  in  any  worthy  meas- 
ure respected  and  that  expects  to  perpetuate  its  existence, 
one  of  the  most,  if  not  the  most  potent  influence  in  the 
presentation  of  all  great  moral  and  religious  questions. 
The  American  estimate  of  the  work  of  the  pulpit  is  higher 
than  the  German  or  the  French,  and  on  the  whole  in  the 
material  aspect  higher  than  even  the  Enghsh.  In  an  intel- 
ligent democracy,  where  from  early  years  citizens  have 
been  taught  the  value  of  public  speech,  and  where  an  apti- 
tude for  it  is  early  developed,  such  estimate  is  a  necessity. 
The  American  preacher  speaks  to  a  reading  pubHc  in  which 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES         321 

even-  species  of  knowledge  is  popularized,  and  from  whose 
schools  of  all  grades  nimble  minded  hearers  are  sent. 
Free  discussion, —  free  theoretically,  and  still  measurably 
free  in  fact,— despite  the  repressive  influences  of  ecclesiasti- 
cal dogmatism,  of  commercial  corruption,  and  of  political 
conspiracy  against  the  freedom  of  the  people,  secures  still 
a  habit  of   independent   judgment.     Church  attendance, 
although  abandoned  by  large   sections  of  the  educated 
and  uneducated  population,  is  still  measurably  a  matter 
of  choice  and  habit  on  the  part  of  the  responsible,  middle 
class.     A  free  state  and  a  free  church  rely  upon  the  power 
of  a  free  pulpit  and  a  free  ministry  to  perpetuate  the  moral 
and  rehgious  life  of  the  people.     There  is,  therefore,_  a 
severe  exaction  upon  the  preacher.     No  state  church,  with 
its  pohtical  and  ecclesiastical  prestige  and  its  wealth  and 
social  position,  represses  the  freedom  of  individual  judg- 
ment or  of  individual  initiative,  or  discredits  the  power  of 
the  free  utterance  of  a  free  ministry.     Tradition,  precedent, 
custom,  which  is  the  common  law  of  ecclesiastical  com- 
munities that  are  in  close  alliance  with  the  state,  has  but 
little  v;eight  in  a  free  church  that  has  a  firm  grip  upon  the 
present  and  a  clear  outlook  upon  the  future.     An  elabo- 
rate ritual,  about  which  gather  the  sanctities  of  ages  and 
of  traditional  authority,  has  never  gotten  firm  hold  here. 
It  is  the  broad  church  in  all  rehgious  communions,  not  the 
high  church,  that  is  the  most  distinctive  American  product.* 
It  is  true  that  dogmatic  tradition  still  bears  sway  in  some 
rehgious  communities,   but  it  is  an  anachronism.  _   The 
typical  American  pulpit  deals  freely  with  the  traditional 
theology  of  the  churches.     It  has  more  power   because 
more  inteUigent  freedom  than  a  pulpit  hampered  by  dog- 
matic tradition.     Even  the  strongly  centrahzed  churches, 
whose  influence  is  measurably  conditioned  by  close  organi- 
zation, have  many  of  them  been  not  less  freely  responsive 
than  the  more  democratic  churches  to  a  popularly  effective 
pulpit.     This  is  the  Protestantism  of  the  American  pulpit. 


322  THE    MODERN    PULPIT 

In  it  we  have  a  relic  of  the  old  Puritan  spirit,  a  spirit  of 
awakened  freedom  under  the  modifications  of  modern  life. 
The  religious  freedom  to  which  we  are  born  lies  back  of 
American  preaching,  and  the  most  dogmatic  of  our  reUgious 
communions  have  not  escaped  the  influence. 

ii.  In  Hne  with  this  traditional  estimate  of  the  importance 
of  the  preacher's  function,  as  already  intimated,  is  the 
intellectual  virihty  of  American  preaching.  The  didactic 
element,  in  fact,  Hes  at  the  basis  of  all  types  of  it.  This, 
too,  is  an  inheritance.  In  the  early  history  of  the  country 
all  schools  of  preachers,  even  the  schools  of  highly  emo- 
tional preachers,  accepted  the  prevaiUng  conception  of 
Christianity  as  a  rehgion  that  is  to  be  taught.  The  theol- 
ogy of  the  various  sects  may  have  differed  widely,  but 
they  all  had  their  theology.  With  inconsiderable  excep- 
tions they  all  shared  the  view  that  the  theology  of  the 
Scriptures  should  be  formulated  by  the  church  and  that  thus 
it  should  be  preached.  A  revolt  within  the  church  against 
all  formulated  theology  was  then  unknown.  It  was  a 
later  movement.  The  revolt  was  merely  from  one  type  of 
theology  to  another.  And  this  theology  had  its  philo- 
sophical basis,  such  as  it  was.  Even  the  Methodist  church 
of  a  later  day,  whose  preaching  was  of  the  emotional  type, 
which  it  has  never  lost,  had  its  theology,  and  it  has  been 
preached  with  great  effectiveness.  Its  founder  was  an 
exceptionally  able  and  accomphshed  theologian  and  a 
preacher  of  extraordinary  logical  power,  notable  for  the 
systematic  quality  of  his  thinking.  And  the  Methodist 
church,  although  it  has  produced  no  successor  to  the  great 
founder  who  has  been  his  equal,  has  sought,  and  success- 
fully, to  perpetuate  the  doctrines  of  grace  as  conceived  by 
him.  It  was  a  well-defined  system  of  doctrine,  and  although 
its  truths,  as  appropriated  and  domesticated  in  Christian 
experience,  have  been  presented  in  a  vigorously  emotional 
and  concrete  manner,  the  preaching  of  Methodism,  as 
illustrated  by  its  representative  men,  has  still  had  a  dis- 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES   323 

tinct  didactic  and  even  philosophic  basis.  It  has  sought 
to  save  souls  by  the  forceful  presentation  of  the  great  saving 
truths  of  Christianity  substantially  as  conceived  by  its 
pioneers. 

The  Baptist  churches,  too,  have  had  their  theology, 
which  has  furnished  a  teaching  basis  for  the  work  of  the 
pulpit,  and  they  have  perpetuated  and  enlarged  themselves 
by  holding  tenaciously  to  its  distinctive  characteristics. 
Their  remarkable  success  in  time  past  in  this  country  is 
due  not  only  or  chiefly  to  the  scenic  impressiveness  of  their 
baptismal  service,  or  to  the  sacredness  with  which  their 
covenant  Hfe  is  invested,  or  to  their  evangelistic  ardor,  but 
as  well  to  the  strenuous  inculcation  and  defence  of  their 
distinguishing  doctrines.  What  is  true  of  these  com- 
munions is  also  true  of  others.  All  these  early  influences 
have  committed  American  preaching  to  a  didactic  basis. 
Many  of  the  preachers  in  some  of  these  sects,  of  which 
the  United  States  has  been  so  prohfic,  have  been  relativelv 
uneducated  men,  but  their  founders  and  their  representa- 
tive preachers  have  been  men  of  learning  and  of  training. - 
Even  those  sects  that  have  discarded  the  theology  of  the 
church,  and  have  fallen  back  upon  the  unformulated 
content  of  Bibhcal  revelation,  have  sought  to  perpetuate 
in  the  intelhgence,  as  well  as  in  the  convictions  and  affec- 
tions of  the  people,  those  rehgious  opinions  and  principles 
for  which  they  and  their  fathers  have  fought. 

The  American  pulpit  has,  therefore,  been  strongly 
Protestant,  and  its  leading  intellectual  influence  has 
doubtless  been  Puritan.  Its  most  characteristic  early 
type  was  the  old  Puritan  preaching  of  England,  which,  as 
we  have  seen,  was  strongly  didactic,  and  even  dogmatic 
and  apologetic,  and  which  valued  emotional  excitation 
and  emotional  interest  in  and  enthusiasm  for  the  truth 
only  as  based  on  intelhgent  apprehension  of  it. 

The  preachers  of  the  Congregational  and  Presbyterian 
churches  especially  were  in  the  main  well-educated  and  well- 


324  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

trained  theologians,  who  had  a  philosophic  grasp  of  the 
truth  they  proclaimed.  And  they  left  as  an  inheritance 
a  type  of  preaching  that  has  been  in  a  general  sense  pre- 
vaihngly  philosophical  in  its  character,  and  which  has  been 
wth  many  modifications  perpetuated  to  this  day.  The  old 
type  of  doctrinal  preaching,  which  was  argumentative  and 
apologetic  and  often  polemical,  has  of  course  vanished  and 
a  distinctively  new  type  of  didactic  preaching  has  taken 
its  place.  The  influence  of  other  Christian  communions,  as 
already  suggested,  is  seen  in  these  changes.  The  Hturgical 
churches  have  doubtless  had  their  share  in  effecting  the 
change.  They  have  furnished  a  type  of  preaching  that  is 
more  largely  tributary  to  the  interests  of  the  worshipping 
assembly  than  was  the  old  didactic  type,  and  this  influence 
has  been  felt  in  all  our  Protestant  communions.  The 
Methodist  and  Baptist  churches  have  influenced  the  entire 
American  Protestant  pulpit  in  the  interest  of  greater  emo- 
tional fervor  and  have  been  leaders  in  successful  effort  to 
reach  the  hearts  of  the  people.  Revivals  of  rehgion,  com- 
mon to  all  so-called  evangelical  communions,  have  left 
behind  them,  as  a  permanent  contribution  to  the  pulpit, 
a  more  stirring  and  effective  type  of  preaching.  The 
preaching  of  the  Hberal  sects,  so  called,  particularly  the 
Unitarian,  has  had  its  influence  in  the  modification,  for 
which  all  the  churches  of  this  country  may  well  be  grateful. 
Under  this  influence  in  part  the  rigors  of  the  theology  of  a 
former  day  have  been  softened,  and  the  more  distinctively 
ethical  quality  in  preaching  lias  become  prevalent  in  all 
churches. 

The  rhetorical  character  of  American  preaching  has  been 
*  modified  by  the  hterary  culture  of  the  age.  All  rehgious 
communions  have  felt  its  power.  It  would  be  difficult  and 
it  is  unnecessary  to  attempt  to  trace  all  the  influences  that 
have  developed  this  modified  product.  They  are  various 
and  complex  and  occult.  But  the  influence  of  prominent 
individual  preachers,  notably  Henry  Ward  Beecher  and 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        325 

Horace  Bushnell,  are  among  the  agencies  that  should  not . 
be  forgotten.  It  is  sufficient  here  merely  to  recall  the 
fact  that  the  old  theological  type  has  given  place  to  an  alto- 
gether different  type  of  didactic  preaching.  The  matter, 
tone,  method,  all  are  changed.  But  still  the  representative 
American  preacher  is  a  teacher  and  in  some  fair  measure  an 
intellectual  leader  of  the  people.  The  teaching  elements  in 
his  preaching  are,  it  may  be  justly  claimed,  more  prominent, 
and  from  the  intellectual  point  of  view  perhaps  of  a  higher 
order,  although  it  must  be  acknowledged  more  one-sidedly 
intellectual  than  those  of  the  German  and  the  English 
preacher.  His  product  is  less  sentimental,  less  affectionate, 
than  that  of  the  German,  less  fervid  and  rhetorically 
briUiant  than  that  of  the  Frenchman,  less  dignified  and 
churchly  than  that  of  the  Anghcan,  less  BibHcal,  less 
sympathetic,  and  less  evangelical  than  that  of  the  English 
nonconformist.  But  in  general  it  will  hardly  be  ques- 
tioned that  it  is  more  thoughtful  and  after  its  kind  instruc- 
tive. In  a  certain  mental  manliness  the  typical  American 
preacher  rarely  finds  a  successful  competitor,  while  it  must 
be  acknowledged  that  in  spiritual  fervor,  in  dehcacy  of 
feeling  and  sentiment,  in  moral  searchmgness,  in  evan- 
gelistic zeal,  and  in  Biblical  simphcity  it  is  distmctly 
deficient  and  in  all  these  aspects  might  be  bettered. 

Yet  it  is  also  true  that  his  product  is  emotionally 
more  vivacious,  more  concrete  and  suggestive,  than  that 
of  a  former  period,  has  better  Hterary  form,  speaks  more 
copiously  to  the  imagination,  while  it  seeks  to  reach  the 
mental  and  moral  judgments  and  is  less  elaborate  and 
logically  coherent.  Its  pubHc  is  less  reflective,  but  not. 
without  a  certain  intellectual  vivacity,  and  is  responsive 
to  pithy,  pungent  speech.  The  American  preacher  adapts 
himself  to  commercial  and  industrial  communities,  to  men 
namely  that  do  some  thinking,  but  who  think  rapidly,  and 
with  increasing  superficiahty,  who  wish  their  preachers  to 
think  with  corresponding  rapidity,  to  speak  as  they  think, 


326  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

and  not  to  get  too  far  into  their  subjects.  But  doubtless 
it  is  still  true  that  the  average  American  audience  respects 
the  inteUigence  of  the  preacher  and  expects  him  to  speak 
with  a  certain  weight  of  authority  that  is  inseparable  from 
adequate  intellectual  training.  The  Protestant  tradition 
of  a  learned  ministry  has  undergone  some  modifications, 
but  it  has  never  lost  its  hold  upon  the  churches,  and  Ameri- 
can schools  of  theology,  in  all  their  efforts  to  adjust  them- 
selves to  the  demands  of  the  age,  never  lose  sight  of  the 
need  of  a  thoroughly  intelHgent  and  well-trained  ministry. 

What  change  in  the  intellectual  fibre  of  American  preach- 
ing increasing  efforts  to  adapt  it  to  the  mental  conditions 
and  needs  of  the  so-called  lower  classes  may  yet  be  effected, 
it  would  be  venturesome  to  undertake  to  predict.  But  at 
all  events  it  is  absolutely  certain  that  it  will  be  obhged  to 
have  respect  to  the  needs  of  the  intelligcQt  portion  of  the 
community  if  it  is  to  retain  its  influence  over  those  upon 
whom  the  welfare  of  the  community  depends  and  if  it  is  to 
perpetuate  an  intelligent  type  of  rehgion. 

It  is  a  matter  of  record  that  those  communions  that  have 
been  most  successful  with  the  less  educated  and  cultivated 
classes  have  seen  the  need  of  a  more  thoroughly  educated 
and  more  fully  equipped  ministry,  not  only  that  they  may 
reach  the  more  intelhgent  and  educated  classes,  but  in 
order  to  do  the  work  that  is  needed  among  those  who  have 
been  regarded  as  their  own  special  constituency.  Not  only 
the  Puritant  Protestant  tradition,  but  the  necessities  of  an 
inquiring,  advancing,  self-governing  people,  will  require, 
still  more  in  the  future  than  in  the  past,  although  in  modi- 
fied form,  that  the  preacher  appeal  to  the  intelligence  of  the 
people  and  promote  it.  It  is  a  genuine  American  aspira- 
tion that  the  pulpit  shall  adjust  itself  to  the  culture  of  the 
*  age,  and  shall  interpret  Christianity  broadly  and  rationally 
to  a  people  advancing  beyond  all  precedent  in  wealth  and 
power,  exposed  to  their  corrupting  influences,  and  facile 
in  experiments  that  test  the  stabiUty  of  its  institutions. 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UxNITED  STATES        327 

And  if  it  were  no  longer  an  aspiration  of  the  people,  all 
the  more  hea\-ily  would  the  responsibility  weigh  upon  a 
prophetic  ministry. 

iii.  In  line  with  its  intellectual  viriUty,  and  as  conditioning 
measurably  its  form,  is  the  realistic  and  practical  quahty 
of  American  preaching.  This  is  preeminently  a  product 
of  American  temperam.ent  and  habit,  which  has  been 
furthered  by  the  experiences  of  American  hfe.  The 
American  mind  is  a  complex  product,  which  it  is  difficult 
to  analyze  and  whose  sources  it  is  difficult  to  trace.  It  is  a 
composite  into  which  enter  many  racial  and  national  in- 
fluences. But  doubtless  the  strongest  influence  in  the 
product  is  English  and  it  is  equally  true  that  the  strongest 
EngUsh  influence  is  the  Puritan.  The  old  Puritan  mind, 
which  has  been  the  most  potent  influence  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  nation,  is  still  seen  in  what  is  best  and  most 
distinctively  American.  It  is  at  once  idealistic  and  real- 
istic, speculative  and  practical,  imaginative  and  judicial, 
at  home  with  invisible  reahties,  but  no  stranger  to  those 
that  are  visible  and  tangible.  It  was  the  ideahstic  and 
speculative  quahty  of  mind  that  found  fullest  homiletic 
development  in  the  early  history  of  the  country.  That 
^the  American  mind  has  a  gift  for  speculative  thought  and 
for  philosophic  investigation  has  been  abundantly  demon- 
strated. The  independent  development  of  theology  in 
New  England  is  proof  of  it.  The  founding  of  the  nation 
is  a  proof  of  the  American  impulse  to  follow  lofty  ideals 
and  to  sacrifice  for  their  reahzation.  The  existence  of  a 
great  repubhc  and  of  a  free  church  based  on  the  highest 
estimate  of  the  value  of  the  individual  soul  and  on  faith 
in  the  reahties  of  Christian  experience  attests  the  ven- 
turesomeness  of  the  Puritan  imagination.  It  was  this 
quahty  that  emerged  in  the  highly  speculative  character 
of  the  theolog}'  and  of  the  preaching  of  the  church  in  the 
early  period  of  our  history.  It  was  this  that  gave  to  Ameri- 
can preaching  that  philosophic  note  for  which  it  has  been 


328  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

distinguished  and  which  it  has  never  wholly  lost.     But 
after  all,  the  American  mind  is  the  Enghsh  and  not  the 
German  type  of  mind.    And  it  is  the  objective,  the  realistic, 
the  practical  quahty,  that  has  had  full  and  free  develop- 
ment during  the  later  period  of  our  history.     American 
thought  in  our  day  is  rapid,  not  over  profound,  and  above 
all  practical.     The  conditions  of  American  Hfe  have  fur- 
thered the  development  of  this  type  of  thought.     A  mark 
of  modem  hfe  in  general,  it  is  especially  true  in  this  country 
that  everything  in  our  day  is  utihzed,  put  to  work,  pushed 
out  into  the  domain  of  practical  result,  and  made  tributary 
to  practical  interests.     Theology  is  less  abstract  and  specu- 
K  lative  than  it  was  formerly.     With  ever  increasing  eamest- 
<   ness  of  desire  and  purpose  the  true  preacher  recognizes 
'  his  vocation  to  adapt  Christianity  to  the  actual  conditions 
>i  of   the   people.     Hence   the   prevailing   tendency   of   the 
J  American  preacher  in  interpreting  Christianity  to  appeal 
1  to  human   experience.     Hence  a  great  extension  of  the 
ethical  type  of  preaching,  the  appUcation  of  Christianity 
as  an  ethical  rehgion  to  the  interests  of  all  classes.     Hence 
its  missionary  character.     Hence  the  abandonment  of  the 
theological  and  dialectical  type  of  preaching  that  appeals 
prevailingly  to  the  understanding  and  furthers  the  doctrinal 
interest,  a  change  from  elaborate  discussion  to  a  more 
incisive  and  direct  method  of  appeal  to  the  sense  of  reaUty 
and  to  a  more  concrete  suggestive,  persuasive  representa- 
tion of  truth  —  that  addresses  the  practical  faculties. 

iv.  Variety  is  another  of  the  most  prominent  character- 
istics of  American  preaching,  and  this  is  in  Hne  with  its 
practical  adjustment  to  all  classes  and  conditions  of  men. 
While  there  are  traits  that  are  common  to  many  types  of  it, 
one  of  the  most  strildng  characteristics  is  that  it  so  largely 
lacks  traits  that  are  common.  The  complex  and  the  cos- 
mopolitan character  of  American  life  necessitates  this 
variety. 

Sectional    peculiarities,    for   example,    are    prominent. 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        329 

Temperament,  climate,  education,  political  and  social  con- 
ditions, industrial  and  commercial  life,  reKgion,  theological 
and  ecclesiastical  traditions,  have  all  been  in  various  ways 
tributary  to  the  development  of  sectional  types  of  preaching. 
We  see  this  in  a  somewhat  striking  manner  in  the  preaching 
of  the  southern  section  of  the  country.  As  compared  with 
the  preaching  of  the  northern  section,  that  of  the  southern 
is  much  more  emotional  in  its  rhetorical  and  oratorical 
qualities,  much  more  effusive  and  demonstrative,  less 
subject  to  the  chastening  influences  of  the  modern  literary 
spirit,  less  wide- reaching  in  its  ethical  purpose,  less  varied 
in  its  types  and  forms,  anchored  more  closely  to  the  doc- 
trines and  traditions  of  the  churches,  and  less  distinctly 
marked  by  intellectual  dehberateness,  independence,  and 
virility.  It  is  true  that  the  south  is  undergoing  great 
changes,  —  industrial,  commercial,  pohtical,  educational, 
literary,  ecclesiastical,  theological.  It  is  interesting  to 
note  how  these  changes  play  into  one  another.  As  a  result 
church  life  in  general  and  the  character  of  the  preaching 
of  the  south  are  subjected  to  a  slow  process  of  modification. 
Preaching  is  becoming  more  distinctively  modem  in  its 
character,  and  is  illustrating  in  an  interesting  manner  the 
irresistible  influence  of  modem  Hfe  upon  the  modern  pulpit. 
But  after  all  the  great  modifying  influences  in  the  hfe  of  our 
day  are  with  the  north.  The  great  educational  institu- 
tions are  still  here.  Many  southem  names  are  indeed 
winning  prominence  and  acceptance  in  literature,  but 
the  north  is  still  the  Hterary  centre  of  the  country  and  it 
has  the  stronger  press.  The  education  of  the  people  is 
more  comprehensive  and  more  thoi:ough.  The  intellec- 
tual training  of  its  higher  institutions  is  closer  and  broader 
and  their  culture  more  copious  and  generous.  Theology 
has  been  more  fully  developed  and  has  greatly  broadened 
its  scope.  The  manuscript  sermon  here  has  a  stronger 
hold  upon  the  preacher  and  upon  the  congregation. 
Preaching  aggregates  a  larger  amount  of  edifying  thought 


330  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

and  is  of  a  somewhat  different  literary  type  from  that  which 
would  be  commonly  acceptable  in  the  south.  The  north- 
em  pulpit  has  certainly  been  less  hampered  by  dogmatic 
tradition  and  is  more  broadly  and  variously  practical  in  its 
presentation  of  the  truth.  Various  hnes  of  secular  devel- 
opment that  open  new  objects  for  the  apphcation  of  the 
ethics  of  Christianity  have  been  more  complete  and  more 
varied  in  the  north  than  in  the  south.  Those  pulpit 
problems  of  adjustment,  especially  to  the  practical  needs 
of  the  industrial  and  commercial  classes,  have  been  less 
urgent  there  than  here.  The  ethical  type  of  preaching  in 
general  has  in  the  south  found  nothing  approximating  the 
range  it  has  found  in  the  north.  The  southern  pulpit  was 
dominated  by  the  slave  power.  Slavery  is  indeed  extinct, 
but  its  effects  still  hnger  in  the  moral  judgments  of  the  people 
and  in  the  moral  quality  of  the  work  of  the  pulpit.  Op- 
position to  the  slave  power  originated  in  connection  ■with 
a  great  revival  of  the  ethical  spirit  of  Christianity  to  which 
the  south  was  largely  a  stranger.  This  movement  was  felt 
as  a  tremendous  power  by  the  northern  pulpit,  and  its 
influence  under  the  leadership  of  men  hke  Henry  Ward 
Beecher,  who  was  its  most  powerful  pulpit  representative 
and  promoter,  has  been  felt  in  all  directions  and  in  all 
spheres,  and  it  still  lingers  in  its  various  transformations. 
Somewhat  different  mental  habits  disclose  themselves 
in  the  preaching  of  the  eastern  and  western  sections  of  the 
country.  It  may  be  fairly  questioned  if  the  pulpit  of  the 
west  has  in  general  fully  shared  the  intellectual  indepen- 
dence that  may  be  justly  claimed  as  characteristic  of  the 
pulpit  of  the  east,  or  if  it  is  equally  cathohc  in  spirit  and 
equally  responsive  to  the  thought  movements  of  our  time. 
That  the  pulpit  of  a  free  and  manly  people  hke  that  of  the 
great  west  should  not  be  hopelessly  hampered  by  dogmatic 
tradition  or  hopelessly  committed  against  all  progress  in 
rehgious  thought,  is  of  course  natural,  and  it  is  certain 
that  it  is  not  the  victim  of  such  committal.     But  that  the 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        331 

so-called  practical  interest  should  dominate  the  intellectual 
or  what  has  been  called  the  speculative  interest  is  also 
natural.  That  a  people  intellectually  so  alert  and  so 
intelhgent  in  their  judgments  in  all  important  matters,  even 
when  unreflective  in  their  habits  of  mind  and  ^sthetically 
crude,  should  demand  something  more  than  emotional 
fervor  and  sentimental  gush  in  their  preachers,  and  that 
they  should  insist  upon  pith  and  vivacitv  of  thought  and 
expression,  is  certainly  a  necessity.  But' that  it  should  be 
the  people  of  the  west  rather  than  of  the  east  that  dis- 
credit and  antagonize  the  modem  historic  method  and 
its  results,  that  they  should  distrust  theological  innovations 
and  should  identify  unfamiHar  theological  theories  with 
unverified  and  unverifiable  speculation,  is  not  altogether 
unnatural,  however  unreasonable  it  may  be.  The  promi- 
nence, then,  of  the  intellectual  quahty  in  the  preaching 
of  the  north,  of  the  practical  quahty  in  that  of  the  west,  and 
of  the  emotional  quahty  in  that  of  the  south  may  roughly, 
but  of  course  inadequately,  characterize  their  varieties 
of  type.  At  any  rate  it  is  true  that  an  enrichment  of  the 
spiritual,  of  the  intellectual,  and  of  the  intellectual  together 
with  the  ethical  quahties  in  the  preaching  of  the  several 
sections  of  the  country  would  mark  a  distinct  improvement. 

^  The  increase  of  the  foreign  population  is  another  con- 
dition of  variety.  The  better  class  of  immigrants  perpetuate 
their  o^m  ecclesiastical  institutions  in  this  countr}^,  and  the 
preaching  which  they  support  bears  the  diversified  marks 
of  race  pecuharity  and  of  rehgious,  theological,  and  eccle- 
siastical training  and  culture.  In  so  far  as  this  preaching 
comes  in  foreign  tongues  it  receives  no  perceptible  in° 
fiuence  from  its  environment  and  exerts  no  influence  upon 
the  preaching  of  the  native  churches.  But  in  course  of 
time,  as  this  foreign  population  comes  more  completely 
under  the  influence  of  our  common  pohtical  institutions, 
common  educational  agencies,  and  a  common  language, 
its  different  methods  of  preaching,  that  jiow  bear  the 


332 


THE   MODERN   PULPIT 


distinctive  marks  of  their  sources,  will  inevitably  be  modi- 
fied and  will  also  doubtless  leave  their  influence  upon  the 
preaching  of  the  native  population.  We  already  see  this 
result  in  some  measure,  for  example,  in  the  preaching  of  the 
Protestant  German  churches  in  which  the  Enghsh  language 
is  used. 

Denominational  pecuharities  yield  other  varieties.  Sects 
in  this  country  have  in  time  past  multiphed  beyond  all 
precedent.  It  is  to  be  devoutly  hoped,  and  indeed  may  be 
beheved,  that  the  process  of  multiplication  has  been  per- 
manently checked.  A  monarchical  government  and  a 
national  church  set  limits  to  the  development  of  sects.  In 
a  democracy  there  are  no  assignable  limits  to  such  mul- 
tipUcation,  save  such  as  may  be  set  by  practical  common 
sense,  calculating  ecclesiastical  economy,  broad  culture, 
and  a  cathoUc  spirit.  Hitherto  these  safeguards  have 
been  in  too  large  measure  ineffective.  Sectarianism 
has  been  one  of  the  most  potent  influences  in  the  produc- 
tion of  homiletic  variety.  It  is  natural  and  necessary. 
Each  sect  has  its  own  history,  its  own  pecuHar  develop- 
ment, and  its  pulpit  will  of  course  bear,  and  for  a  long  time 
retain,  its  own  distinctive  marks.  Homiletic  pecuhari- 
ties are  inherent  in  their  origin  and  development.  But 
there  is  much  less  that  is  individuahstic  and  characteristic 
in  the  preaching  of  the  different  Protestant  denominations 
than  formerly.  In  the  less  educated  communities  the 
sectarian  mark  still  Ungers.  In  fact  in  all  communities 
where  Protestantism  has  had  free  development  we  still 
have  the  rationahstic,  the  confessional,  the  ethical,  the 
sentimental,  and  emotional  types  of  preaching,  as  con- 
ditioned by  the  historic  development  of  the  different  reh- 
gious  bodies,  and  American  denominational  preaching 
still  perpetuates  itself  in  diversities  of  type.  But  there 
are  in  this  country  exceptionally  strong  interactionary 
agencies  that  are  mutually  modifying,  and  the  movements 
of  the  age  in  the  direction  of  a  more  cathohc,  compre- 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        333 

hensive,  and   cosmopoKtan  spirit  result  in  approximate 
unity  of  type. 

Diversity  of  classes  and  of  interests  is  another  condition 
of  variety.  So  long  as  the  population  of  the  country  was 
limited,  scattered,  and  homogeneous,  as  in  the  early  period, 
so  long  as  industrial  and  commercial  life,  which  tends 
to  the  diversification  of  employments,  the  multiplication 
of  classes,  and  the  division  of  interests,  was  undeveloped, 
and  so  long  as  facihties  of  communication,  which  promote 
industrial  and  commercial  development  and  crowd  the 
centres  of  population,  were  lacking,  there  was  less  that 
evokes  variety  in  the  work  of  the  preacher.  The  preaching 
of  that  early  day,  which  scarcely  recognized  the  need  of 
variety  and  was  subject  to  no  necessity  with  respect  to  its 
production,  met  the  wants  of  a  homogeneous  population. 
The  people  had  time  to  reflect,  were  trained  to  it,  and  were 
accustomed  to  interest  themselves  in  the  problems  of 
rehgion  and  of  theology  as  well.  The  doctrinal  sermon 
was,  therefore,  of  course  the  chief  thing  in  demand,  and 
it  at  once  expressed  and  promoted  the  reflective  and  argu- 
mentative habits  of  the  people.  It  was  of  the  pastoral 
order  and  aimed  at  edification  by  indoctrination.  The 
evangehstic  sermon  always  had  a  strong  doctrinal  basis. 
It  was  not  generally  called  evangelistic,  but  in  accordance 
with  the  prevailing  conceptions  of  the  needs  of  the  rehgious 
life,  it  often  took  the  form  of  the  revival  sermon  and  was 
so  designated,  just  as  in  our  day,  in  accordance  with  our 
habit  of  fixing  upon  new  names  for  suggesting  new  methods 
of  doing  old  things,  we  call  it,  after  the  manner  of  German 
and  EngUsh  preachers,  the  "mission"  sermon.  The 
ethical  sermon  was  never  differentiated  from  the  doc- 
trinal. It  consisted  of  the  practical  appHcation  of  doc- 
trinal theolog}-.  It  was  hmited  in  its  range.  Its  most 
characteristic  form,  as  an  ethical  product,  was  that  of  the 
ethico-pohtical  discussion  of  public  questions  on  special 
occasions.     In  the  vast  increase  and  diversification  of  the 


334  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

population,  crowded  as  it  is  largely  into  the  great  indus- 
trial and  commercial  centres,  and  distributed  over  vast 
areas  of  territor}',  in  the  great  multiphcation  of  industries 
and  occupations  through  invention  and  facilities  of  com- 
munication, in  the  modification  and  enlargement  of  our 
educational  institutions,  in  the  changed  and  enlarged  scope 
of  our  political  life,  all  conditioning  a  diversified  population 
with  diversified  needs,  new  and  strange  exactions  upon  the 
preacher  have  arisen.  New  tastes  and  habits  and  changed 
attitudes  towards  the  church  and  rehgion  have  to  be  met. 
Preaching  has  greater  variety  because  the  needs  to  be  met 
are  more  various.  The  old  doctrinal  sermon  has  wholly 
disappeared,  the  didactic  sermon  is  less  hampered  by  tradi- 
tional teaching  or  by  traditional  homiletic  methods,  and  is  a 
dift'erent  rhetorical  product.  The  pastoral  sermon  ranges 
over  a  wider  field  and  covers  a  wider  circle  of  interests.  It 
aims  at  the  prom_otion  of  the  missionary  Hfe  of  the  church  in 
its  manifold  forms.  The  evangelistic  sermon  has  a  more 
varied  character,  dealing  not  only  with  greater  diversities 
of  population,  from  the  noncovenanted  churchgoer  in  our 
more  enhghtened  and  cultivated  communities  to  the  half 
barbarous  negroes  of  the  south  and  the  wholly  barbarous 
denizens  of  the  city  slums,  gathering  into  its  scope  greater 
varieties  of  evangehstic  interest,  taking  a  greater  variety 
of  evangehstic  forms,  and  handhng  a  greater  variety  of 
evangehstic  motives.  The  ethical  sermon,  which  was 
formerly  a  species  of  rationahstic  moralizing,  against 
which  there  was  strong  prejudice  in  evangelical  circles, 
or  was  a  practical  inculcation  of  theological  teachings, 
against  which  equally  strong  rationahstic  prejudice  has 
reacted,  may  almost  be  called  in  our  day  a  new  type  of 
preaching  and  has  found  an  almost  unhmited  field.  The 
parenetic  or  paracletic  sermon  has  its  own  modifications  and 
enlargements  in  the  changed  conditions  of  modem  hfe, 
which,  while  they  increase  the  external  resources  of  comfort 
and  happiness,  multiply  and  intensify  the  sorrows  and 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        335 

dissatisfactions  of  human  existence.  In  a  better  and  fuller 
knowledge  of  the  Bible,  the  Bibhcal  sermon  has  enlarged 
and  enriched  itself,  and  in  this  miscellaneousness  of  modern 
life  the  structural  and  rhetorical  or  literar}^  form  of  the 
sermon  partakes  of  the  same  general  tendency  to  variety. 
And  all  this  involves  a  very  marked  development  of  what 
is  personal  and  peculiar  in  individual  preachers.  This 
note  of  individuality,  this  assertion  of  freedom  for  the 
homiletic  personahty,  is  itself  one  of  the  distinguishing 
features  of  American  preaching.  In  no  other  pulpit 
in  Christendom  probably  has  the  homiletic  personahty 
such  free  range. 

By  reason  of  this  miscellaneousness  and  variety  in 
American  life,  it  is  evident  also  that  American  preaching 
must  cover  a  very  large  range  of  subjects.  Into  no  other 
pulpit  are  there  introduced  subjects  of  such  wide- reaching 
and  varying  import.  To  its  independent,  democratic  spirit 
almost  nothing  is  foreign.  And  all  this,  it  is  evident,  must 
condition  an  objective,  concrete,  realistic  quahty,  for  it  must 
deal  with  what  is  actual,  deal  with  reahties  as  the  preacher 
finds  them,  and  it  must  reach  its  end  by  the  use  of  means 
that  are  adjusted  to  those  ends  and  to  the  subjects  with 
which  it  deals.  Beneath  all  these  diversities  and  varieties 
we  may  detect  under  the  pressure  of  the  forces  of  modem 
life,  and  especially  under  movements  towards  ecclesiastical 
confederation,  an  approximate  unity  of  homiletic  type. 
But  these  multifold  homiletic  schools  will  long  abide  and 
the  conditions  that  necessitate  them  will  continue  to 
counterwork  successful  efforts  in  the  interest  of  ecclesiasti- 
cal consohdation. 

II. 

But  let  us  come  now  into  closer  touch  with  some  of  the 
different  schools  of  American  preaching,  which  are  repre- 
sented by  the  more  prominent  ecclesiastical  communions 


336  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

and  with  a  few  of  their  individual  preachers.  It  is  a  wide 
and  fertile  field,  but  it  must  be  traversed  hastily  and  its 
wealth  disclosed  inadequately. 

i.  The  preaching  of  the  Congregational  churches  has 
been  a  dominant  theological  as  well  as  rehgious  and 
moral  influence  in  this  country.  It  doubtless  does  not  hold 
the  place  it  once  held,  but  it  is  still  felt  as  an  intelHgent 
rehgious  force  in  the  sisterhood  of  Protestant  communions 
and  in  the  larger  world  without.  Congregationalism  is  de- 
veloped Protestantism.  It  rejoices  in  a  free  and  aggressive 
pulpit.  In  the  responsiveness  of  this  free  spirit,  its  homiletic 
product  has  been  subject  to  a  succession  of  rapid  changes. 
Some  of  these  changes  that  stand  in  relatively  close  con- 
nection with  the  preaching  of  our  own  day  may  be  traced 
back  to  the  period  of  Lyman  Beecher.  He  was  himself 
perhaps  the  most  prominent  pioneer  or  at  least  represent- 
ative in  his  day  of  a  new  type  of  preaching  to  which  the 
Congregational  churches  have  become  heirs.  It  was  the 
period  of  the  Unitarian  controversy.  The  reaction  of 
Unitarianism  against  orthodoxy  so  called  was  vigorous,  not 
to  say  bitter  and  unrelenting.  The  ultimate  value  of  this 
reaction  against  Calvinistic  orthodoxy  as  it  has  been  held 
by  the  churches  cannot  be  questioned.  But  it  had  aUied 
itself  with  the  spirit  of  negation  and  of  disintegration  that 
was  current  in  the  eighteenth  century.  In  its  tone  it  was 
often  arrogant  and  in  its  method  destructive.  But  it  did 
effective  work.  Men  of  clear  vision,  hke  Dr.  Beecher, 
in  the  Congregational  and  Presbyterian  churches,  saw 
that  there  must  be  a  modification  in  theology.  Many 
agencies,  besides  the  Unitarian  reaction,  were  proving 
tributary  to  it.  But  it  was  seen  too  that  religion  cannot 
thrive  upon  a  basis  of  criticism  and  negation.  The 
rehgious  hfe  of  the  churches  must  be  refreshed,  and  their 
moral  life  must  be  developed.  Religious  truth  must  be 
made  tributary  to  piety,  and  a  more  fully  developed 
spiritual  hfe  must  become  the  inspiration  of  their  moral  hfe. 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        337 

The  leading  men  who  set  themselves  against  the  Unitarian 
movement  v^^ere  many  of  them  what  had  been  previously 
called  "new-light  men."  Such  was  Dr.  Beecher.  It  is  an 
interesting  and  significant  fact,  and  it  is  a  fact,  that  in 
times  of  theological  and  rehgious  emergency  it  is  often 
the  "new-hght  man"  that  comes  to  the  front  and  rescues 
the  church  by  modifying  an  unpreachable  theology  and  by 
evoking  the  rehgious  and  moral  instincts  of  the  Christian 
life.  In  these  theological  as  well  as  rehgious  changes  Dr. 
Nathaniel  W.  Taylor  of  Yale  Divinity  School  was  a  potent 
influence. 

The  modifications  introduced  were  all  in  the  direction 
of  a  larger  and  more  Christian  conception  of  the  character 
of  God  and  of  the  nature  of  man,  and  were  tributar}'  to  a 
more  worthy  estimate  of  human  freedom  and  responsibihty. 
In  the  pulpit  of  the  Congregational  churches.  Dr.  Beecher 
was  the  most  prominent  representative  of  this  movement. 
For  his  theology  he  was  indebted  particularly  to  Dr.  Taylor, 
whose  long-time  friend  he  was  and  beside  whom,  as  he 
desired,  he  was  at  last  laid  at  rest  in  the  old  burial  ground 
in  New  Haven.  Dr.  Beecher  lacked  the  speculative  mind 
of  the  typical  theologian.  He  had  the  spirit,  the  habit  and 
the  equipment  of  the  preacher,  and  was  perhaps  the  most 
effective  public  speaker  of  his  day.  He  was  a  man  of 
striking  personahty.  Traces  of  it  are  found  in  his  illustrious 
family,  particularly  in  his  son  Henry  Ward,  who  was 
unquestionably  the  most  gifted  preacher  this  country  has 
produced,  and  in  the  judgment  of  no  less  a  man  than  the 
late  Dr.  R.  W.  Dale  the  greatest  preacher  of  the  Christian 
church. 

Dr.  Beecher's  gifts  were  practical.  He  had  a  genuine 
scent  for  reahty,  and  readily  detected  the  practical  bearings 
of  rehgious  truth.  With  tremendous  force  of  will,  so 
essential  to  the  art  of  persuasion,  intensity  of  emotion,  and 
vivid  imagination  there  were  associated  the  presence,  the 
voice,  and  many  of  the  external  appointments  of  the  pulpit 


338  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

orator.  With  such  equipment  he  was  the  man  for  his  time. 
With  the  skill  and  force  of  an  advocate  he  defended  the 
doctrines  of  a  moderate  Calvinism  and  succeeded  in 
persuading  the  churches  that  they  were  still  tenable,  and 
that  they  had  been  caricatured  by  their  antagonists.  Like 
most  preachers  of  his  day  he  was  a  vigorous  polemist, 
snuffing  the  battle  from  afar  and  eager  as  a  war  horse  for 
the  fray,  confident  that  if  he  could  only  come  into  close 
quarters  with  men  hke  Lord  Byron,  or  any  other  theological 
reprobate,  in  argument  and  appeal,  he  would  not  fail  to 
win  him  to  his  theology  and  rehgion.  But  he  preached 
positively  and  concentrated  his  rchgious  teachings  upon 
the  work  of  promoting  a  revival  of  the  religious  life,  and 
it  was  precisely  this  quickened  spiritual  life  of  the  churches 
that  checked  the  reactionary  movement  and  ultimately 
to  a  large  extent  modified  its  character.  Dr.  Beecher's 
preaching  was  prevailingly  doctrinal  in  substance,  but 
evangeHstic  and  ethical  in  aim.  The  truth  was  presented 
for  the  most  part  in  nontechnical,  popular  language. 
The  formal,  excessively  elaborate,  and  stereotyped  method 
of  a  former  period  was  rejected,  and  in  his  hands  and  under 
his  influence  and  that  of  men  hke  minded,  preaching 
became  more  persuasive.  The  ethical  aspects  of  Chris- 
tianity, which  Unitarianism  had,  in  its  own  way,  already 
accentuated,  were  more  fully  developed.  Rehgion  as  a 
subjective  experience  and  as  faith  in  objective  truth  still 
held  its  supremacy,  but  it  was  more  closely  allied  with 
Christian  morality  and  penetrated  practical  hfe  more 
deeply  and  perv^asively  than  in  former  periods.  In  many 
branches  of  moral  reform  Dr.  Beecher  was  a  pioneer.  He 
was  among  the  first  to  enter  the  field  against  intemperance, 
1  slavery,  and  dueUing.  His  discourses  on  intemperance 
I  were  widely  influential  in  their  day,  the  discourse  on 
_1*  duelling,  occasioned  by  the  death  of  Alexander  Hamilton, 
ji  \;  which  he  regarded  as  his  most  effective  sermon,  was  hardly 
'  '   i    less  tributary  to  its  practical  object,  and  in  his  attitude 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        339 

towards  the  slave  system,  he  was  the  forerunner  of  his  more 
illustrious  son  and  his  daughter,  Mrs.  Stowe.  Three 
large  volumes  contain  his  chief  homiletic  products.  The 
theological  discourses,  of  which  there  are  many,  may 
almost  be  said  to  have  furnished  for  his  day  a  new  type  of 
doctrinal  preaching.  It  is  their  aim  to  vindicate  the  prac- 
tical value  of  theologic  truth.  In  Hne  with  the  homiletic 
habits  of  his  day,  the  order  of  thought  is  well  defined,  clear, 
and  shaped  with  reference  to  cumulative  effects,  but  in 
literary  style  his  preaching  is  much  more  direct  and  forceful, 
racy  and  pungent,  than  was  common  at  that  time  and  has  an 
imaginative  touch  that  illuminates  the  truth  and  animates 
the  hearer. 

Modifications  in  teaching  and  in  homiletic  spirit  and 
method  are  seen  much  more  conspicuously  in  Henry  Ward 
Beecher,  and  by  him  homiletic  movements  already  started 
are  much  farther  advanced.  He  perpetuated  the  evange- 
listic spirit  of  his  father,  he  pushed  the  ethical  type  of 
preaching  to  an  extreme  it  had  never  reached  before,  and 
he  carried  evangehcal  Christianity  over  into  alhance  with 
the  doctrine  of  evolution  and  during  the  last  years  of  his 
life  gave  new  illustration  of  the  popular  method  of  pulpit 
teaching.  Mr.  Beecher's  significance  for  the  American 
pulpit  has  already  been  elsewhere  discussed  by  the  writer.^ 
But  it  may  again  be  said  that  unique  and  inimitable  as 
preacher  though  he  was,  the  influence  which  he  exerted 
upon  the  preaching  of  the  Congregational  churches  not 
only,  but  upon  all  the  Protestant  churches  of  the  country 
and  upon  many  in  other  lands,  has  not  been  surpassed  by 
any  man. 

Pastoral  edification  and  moral  incentive  have  doubtless, 
on  the  whole,  been  the  leading  characteristics  of  the  preach- 
ing of  Congregationalism.  But  the  evangeHstic  spirit  that 
gave  character  to  the  movement  above  mentioned  in  the 
early  part  of  the  last  century'  lingered  for  a  considerable 

'  "Representative  Modern  Preachers,"  Ch.  III. 


340  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

time  with  the  churches,  and  the  gifts  of  the  pastoral  "mis- 
sioncr"  were  well  cultivated.  Until  within  the  last  gener- 
ation most  Congregational  ministers  have  been  pastoral 
evangehsts.  Our  Hmits  permit  reference  to  only  two  or 
three  preachers  in  whom  evangelistic  gifts  were  prominent 
and  those  with  whom  the  writer  is  especially  familiar. 

Dr.  Charles  G.  Finney,  founder  of  Broadway  Taber- 
nacle Chufch7~Nev/  York,  and  subsequently  president  of 
Oberlin  College,  was  the  most  widely  known  and,  up  to  the 
time  of  Mr.  Moody,  the  most  successful  of  the  recent 
evangelistic  preachers  of  this  country.  His  evangehsm 
had  a  strong  ethical  note  of  a  sort,  and  was  due  to  the 
austere  ethical  quality  of  his  theology  and  to  the  pecuhar- 
ities  of  his  early  religious  experiences.  By  perpetual 
insistence  upon  the  freedom  of  the  will  and  upon  human 
responsibihty  in  regeneration  and  conversion,  Calvinism 
in  his  hands  was  still  further  modified  along  the  hne  in 
which  it  was  already  moving.  He  exacted  of  his  converts  a 
strongly  ascetic  life  of  unselfish  Christian  character.  In 
his  evangelistic  methods  he  was  austere,  uncompromising, 
often  rude  and  revolutionary.  Refinement  and  delicacy 
of  Christian  feeling  and  sentiment  seemingly  had  no  place 
in  his  estimate  of  Christian  character,  and  to  the  cultured 
grace  of  Christian  courtesy  he  was  something  of  a  stranger. 
His  spirit  and  method  were  Judaistic.  He  had  the  great- 
ness of  John  the  Baptist,  not  the  greatness  of  him  who 
is  willing  to  be  least  in  the  kingdom  of  grace.  But  no 
"missioner"  of  his  day  reached  his  measure  of  subduing 
power.  His  mind  was  keenly  discriminating  and  ana- 
lytical, sharply  logical  and  strongly  argumentative,  his  style 
vigorously,  not  to  say  rudely,  direct  and  pungent,  his  power 
over  the  conscience  was  amazing,  and  his  methods  of 
exposition  not  less  than  his  methods  of  moral  insistence 
and  inculcation  were  singularly  tributary  to  this  power. 
In  his  hands  the  robust  moral  and  intellectual  elements  of 
rehgion  were  made  prominent.     He  pushed  the  sturdy 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        341 

masculine  aspects  of  Christianity  upon  thinking  minds  and 

won  them.     His  lectures  on  revivals  disclose   the   spirit 

and  method  of  his  evangelism.     His  lectures  on  theology 

■  at  Oberlin  College  disclose  his  doctrinal  system,  and  his 

i  "Sermons  on  Important  Subjects"  illustrate  his^ homiletic 

;  methods.     In  intellectual  discrimination,  logical  coherence,  ^ 

1  cumulative  force,  incisive  appeal  to  the  moral  sense,  and 

'  remorseless  insistence  upon  the  one  supreme  point  in  hand, 

he  was,  in  his  day,  matchless.     That  the  churches  have 

never  since  seen  his  equal  is  matter  for  lament.     That 

they  have  not  seen  his  counterpart  we  need  not  regret. 

Massachusetts,  always  the  centre  of  Congregationalism, 
has  led  the  van  in  a  succession  of  gifted  preachers,  strong 
not  only  in  intellectual  leadership  and  moral  incentive, 
but  in  pastoral  evangehsm.  It  is  almost  a  reproach  to  pass 
so  many  notable  men  in  silence.  But  Dr.  Edward  N. 
Kirk,  for  thirty  years  pastor  of  Mt.  Vernon  Church,  Boston, 
should  be  remembered  as  perpetuating  the  pastoral  evan- 
gelism of  the  churches  of  a  former  generation.  Unlike 
many  of  his  contemporaries,  he  was  not  a  strong  thinker, 
nor  a  man  of  theological  mind,  nor  a  representative  of  the 
choicest  literary  culture  of  his  day.  But  he  was  a  most 
gifted  and  graceful  popular  preacher.  The  French  homi- 
letic  and  rhetorical  style,  of  which  he  was  a  dihgent  stu- 
dent, strongly  attracted  him,  and  disclosed  its  influence 
in  his  unction,  pathos,  and  clear-cut,  crisp,  epigrammatic 
diction.  He  had  all  the  appointments  of  the  popular 
pulpit  orator,  the  mental  and  emotional  gifts,  the  im- 
posing presence,  and  the  resonant  voice,  and  behind  all 
the  manly,  consecrated  purpose  to  make  his  message  per- 
suasive. His  lectures  on  revivals  illustrate  his  evangehstic 
methods,  his  lectures  on  the  Parables  suggest  his  pastoral 
didactic  gifts,  and  two  volumes  of  sermons  of  a  miscel- 
laneous character  disclose  the  variety  of  his  homiletic 
work. 
Professor  George  Shepard,  of  Bangor  Theological  Semi- 


342  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

nary,  had  in  his  day  no  superior  in  New  England  as  a  pul- 
pit orator.  Although  prevailingly  a  pastoral  teacher  and 
guide  in  his  exposition  and  appb'cation  of  evangehcal 
doctrine,  which  was  of  the  New  England  type  of  his  day, 
and  in  his  inculcation  of  a  strong  and  beneficent  Christian 
life,  his  evangehstic  instincts  and  interests  were  pronounced, 
and  some  of  his  sermons,  too  few  of  which  are  found  in  the 
one  volume,  which  unhappily  is  all  that  remains  to  us,  and 
particularly  the  one  entitled  "Ye  will  not  come  to  Me," 
illustrate  his  evangehstic  spirit  and  method.  During 
periods  of  rehgious  revival  his  preaching  reached  a  great 
height  of  evangehstic  power.  Probably  no  preacher  of  his 
day  handled  the  manuscript  in  this  type  of  preaching  with 
an  effectiveness  comparable  with  his.  He  illustrates  the 
futihty  of  dogmatizing  against  the  use  of  the  manuscript, 
even  in  the  evangehstic  type  of  preaching.  He  dealt 
with  the  commonplaces  of  the  evangelical  faith,  which  was 
the  moderate  Calvinism  of  his  day.  His  thought  was 
clear  and  strong,  but  without  novelties,  and  of  itself  not 
particularly  stimulating  in  its  suggestiveness.  He  was  not 
a  theological  thinker,  hke  his  distinguished  colleague.  Dr. 
Samuel  Harris,  who  was  both  theologian  and  preacher 
of  an  exceptional  mark.  Dr^  Shepaxd  was  a  most  valuable 
lecturer  upon  the  preacher's  work,  and  a  most  helpful 
critic  and  a  far  better  exemplar  than  either  lecturer  or 
critic.  He  had  the  physical  personaUty  of  an  orator,  a 
strong  and  manly  frame,  a  countenance  suggestive  of 
modesty  and  dignity  and  of  seriousness  and  force,  and 
which,  in  the  inspiration  of  a  great  emotion,  caught  from 
a  great  theme  and  from  commerce  with  the  invisible  world, 
beamed  in  benignity  hke  the  face  of  an  angel.  His  voice 
was  strong,  yet  musical,  capable  of  terrific  explosions  as  of 
thunder  power,  but  winsome  too  in  its  tones  of  gentleness, 
and  he  used  it  with  a  master's  skill  which  lacked  no  ele- 
ment of  naturalness  and  simpUcity.  He  was  the  Giant 
Great  Heart  of  the  churches  of  Alaine.    His  sermons  had 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        343 

the  strength  of  closely  compacted  unity  of  thought  and  the 
ordcrwas  clear  and  natural  after  the  most  approved  method, 
but  never  stereotyped.  His  diction  was  perhaps  the  chief 
attraction.  It  wa.s  more  massive  and  cogent  than  his 
thought.  He  knew,  as  no  man  of  his  day  knew,  how  to 
swing  the  short  compact  sentence.  In  Anglo-Saxon  con- 
centration and  strength  he  was  not  excelled.  The  style 
is  a  valuable  study,  and  one  is  not  surprised  that  one  of 
the  most  gifted  preachers  of  Boston,  who  not  long  since 
died,  was  accustomed  frequently  to  read  Dr.  Shepard's 
sermons  for  the  stimulus  of  their  compact  diction.  Dr. 
Shepard's  oratory  was  not  of  the  old-fashioned  Ciceronian 
or  Johnsonian  style.  Yet  in  the  subjective,  reflective, 
analytic  tendencies  of  our  day,  it  seems  to  have  passed  into 
desuetude.  But  it  may  be  questioned  if  the  pulpit  of  our 
day  be  not  the  poorer  because  preachers  of  his  type  have 
left  no  successors  behind  to  do  a  work  hke  theirs  in  a  way 
that  is  consonant  with  our  needs. 

Andover  Theological  Seminar}'  has  m.ade  notable  con- 
tributions to  the  preaching  of  the  Congregational  churches 
of  New  England  and  of  the  country  at  large.  Its  various 
theological  modifications,  whether  of  a  later  or  an  earher 
day,  are  in  hne,  and  all  ahke  in  Hne,  with  the  traditional 
freedom  of  the  Congregational  spirit.  It  was  with  honest 
pride  that  Professor  Park  could  claim  that  Andover  had 
produced  a  type  of  theology  whose  chief  excellence  was 
that  it  could  be  preached.  This  theology,  doubtless,  was 
preached  in  its  day  with  power.  It  was  made  tributary 
to  evangehstic  interests  and  to  the  intellectual  and  moral 
elevation  of  the  churches,  and  its  literary  and  rhetorical 
quahties  were  of  a  very  high  order.  In  intellectual  eleva- 
tion, in  moral  force,  and  in  Uterar\'  elegance  and  rhetorical 
dignity  and  grace,  as  illustrated  by  Professor  Phelps  and 
especially  by  Professor  Park,  and  by  large  numbers  of 
preachers  that  have  been  sent  out  from  under  their  shaping 
hands,  Andover  preaching  is  to  be  spoken  of  in  terms  of 


344  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

admiration.  But  in  its  palmiest  days  it  was  often  ques- 
tioned whether  it  were  a  type  of  preaching  available  for 
the  man  of  average  endowment  and  whether  even  in  ablest 
hands  it  were  adapted  to  the  best  work  of  the  pulpit.  It 
is  certain  that  in  our  own  day  it  could  not  readily  be  ad- 
justed to  the  evangehstic  or  ethical  interests  of  the  churches, 
and  its  homiletic  and  rhetorical  quaHties  would  not  meet 
their  needs.  Its  defect  was  its  overelaborateness.  It  was 
too  intellectual,  too  theological,  too  artistic,  and  too  defec- 
tive in  simphcity,  spontaneity,  and  directness. 

Professor  Phelps'  lectures  on  homiletics  were  the  prod- 
uct of  an  accepted  theory  of  homiletic  elaboration.  They 
belong  to  a  type  of  preaching  that  has  passed,  and  in  fact 
represent  a  type  that  is  too  elaborate  for  the  best  uses  at 
any  time.  The  subject  is  overloaded.  No  young  preacher 
in  our  day  could  appropriate  and  assimilate  the  pro- 
digious amount  of  material  that  is  crowded  into  the  dis- 
cussion. For  a  mature  student,  or  for  one  who  has  made 
considerable  head  in  mastering  his  art,  "The  Theory  of 
Preaching"  may  be  of  value.  But  for  the  novice  it  is 
bewildering.  The  career  of  this  great  institution  has  been 
a  briUiant  one,  and  it  has  been  a  power  for  good  in  this 
country.  It  has  dignified  and  simplified  theolog\^  It 
has  dignified  the  preacher's  work.  But  the  older  Andover 
has  not  always  been  true  to  the  demands  of  theological 
progress,  nor  has  its  preaching  always  been  most  success- 
fully tributary  to  the  evangehstic  and  to  the  moral  in- 
terests of  the  churches.  It  has  produced  a  theology. 
But  to  develop  a  theology  is  not  necessarily  to  furnish  a 
message.  The  great  theologian  of  Andover  beheved  in 
great  sermons.  The  beginner  should  have  three  months 
in  which  to  prepare  his  sermon.  He  should  write  and  re- 
write it  again  and  again  and  again.  It  should  be  an  elabo- 
rate product,  conceived  and  fashioned  according  to  the 
highest  standards  of  homiletic  art.  All  this  lessened  the 
significance  of  the  sermon  as  an  instrument  and  made  it 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        345 

an  end.'  After  a  pastorate  of  two  years  Professor  Park 
had  thirty  sermons.  They  were  frequently  rewritten, 
and  two  that  belong  to  that  early  period  are  among  the 
most  impressive  he  ever  preached. 

But  estimated  from  the  intellectual  and  rhetorical  points 
of  view,  as  related  to  the  period  to  which  Professor  Park 
belonged,  to  the  intelhgence  and  culture  of  the  churches 
to  which  he  was  accustomed  to  preach,  and  to  the  excep- 
tional class  of  students  that  he  was  accustomed  to  teach, 
our  admiration  for  his  preaching  need  not  be  restricted. 
As  a  theologian  and  metaphysician  he  stands  in  the  first 
line,  and  according  to  his  type  he  was  one  of  the  most  power- 
ful preachers  that  have  ever  been  given  to  the  churches  of 
this  country.  He  was,  of  course,  an  occasional  preacher 
and  the  preacher  for  an  exceptional  class  of  men,  and  as 
such  one  questions  whether,  after  all,  he  were  not  more  of 
a  preacher  than  theologian.  One  almost  laments  that 
he  ever  turned  aside  from  practical  theology,  m  some 
departments  of  which  he  had  shown  such  aptitude.  One 
queries  if  his  work  in  the  practical  would  not  have  hved 
longer  than  his  work  in  the  speculative  sphere  of  theology. 
What  is  left  to  the  general  pubMc  of  Professor  Park's 
work  is  chiefly  his  sermons,  and  articles  that  disclose  his 
gifts  for  the  department  of  homiletics.  His  students  have 
perpetuated  the  traditions  of  a  great  theologian,  but  his 
theology  has  not  been  pubhshed.  The  pubhc  must 
rely  upon  his  sermons  for  their  impressions  of  his  tran- 
scendant  power.  No  one  can  read  those  two  volumes 
and  the  occasional  sermons  that  are  otherwise  preserved 
without  a  feeling  of  regret  that  this  great  rhetorician  and 
orator  had  not  turned  his  great  gifts  more  fully  toward 
the  pulpit  and  had  not  left  the  world  a  completer  illustration 
of  that  pulpit  power  which  was  so  masterful.  In  keenness 
of  intellectual  discrimination,  in  subtle  power  of  analysis, 
in  largeness  of  mental  scope,  in  elevation  of  thought 
and  sentiment,  in  the  stately  moral  dignity  that  hovered 


346  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

above  his  occasional  wit  and  sarcasm,  in  dignified  and  co- 
gent rhetoric,  in  felicity  of  illustration,  in  a  certain  martial 
movement  toward  its  appointed  goal,  and  in  a  certain  sub- 
hmity  of  oratorical  force,  Professor's  Park's  preaching 
was  mightily  impressive. 

And  yet  it  may  be  confessed  that  the  more  recent  type 
of  Congregational  preaching,  with  its  broader,  simpler, 
and  more  reahstic  theology,  its  wider  ethical  comprehen- 
siveness, its  more  earnest  and  cathoHc  humanity,  its  more 
direct  and  practical  touch  with  all  spheres  of  human  hfe, 
and  its  simpler  homiletic  method  and  rhetorical  style, 
is  better  adapted  to  the  conditions  and  needs  of  our  age 
than  the  preaching  of  Professor  Park  and  the  Andover 
school  to  the  conditions  and  needs  of  the  former  period, 
and  one  even  questions  whether  preaching  like  that  of  our 
time  might  not  have  met  wants  that  were  then  not  fully 
met.  One  questions  whether  the  preaching  of  our  day, 
when  once  it  fully  understands  itself,  gets  its  bearings,  and 
knows  its  possibihties,  may  not  adjust  itself  even  to  evan- 
gehstic  interests  as  fully,  if  not  more  fully,  than  the  preach- 
ing of  Andover's  golden  age. 

In  many  of  his  homiletic  quahties  Dr.  Richard  S, 
Storrs  was  alhed  with  the  Andover  school  of  Professor 
Park,  and  he  may  be  called  its  most  illustrious  pastoral 
preacher.  He  was  for  half  a  centur}'  pastor  of  Pilgrim 
Church,  Brooklyn,  and  shared  with  Mr.  Beecher  the  honors 
of  pulpit  primacy  in  that  city  of  distinguished  preachers. 
Mr.  Beecher  was  an  orator,  but  we  somehow  think  of  him 
as  the  great  preacher  rather  than  orator.  Dr.  Storrs  was 
a  preacher  and  a  preacher  of  rare  gifts,  but  one  somehow 
thinks  of  him  as  preeminently  a  great  pulpit  orator.  In 
highly  trained  and  cultivated  rhetorical  and  elocutionary- 
gifts  Dr.  Storrs  surpassed  his  great  contemporar}-.  In  his 
emotional  gifts,  in  his  ardent  sympathies,  in  persuasive 
and  expository  quahties,  Mr.  Beecher  was  Dr.  Storrs' 
superior.     In  the  Pilgrim  Church    orator    the    Andover 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        347 

tradition  of  homiletic  and  rhetorical    elaborateness  was 
perpetuated.     His  discourses  were  pulpit  orations,  which 
on  special  occasions  matched  the  high  art  of  the  classical 
French  preachers.     They  lacked  the  directness,^  the  sim- 
phcity,    the    colloquial    homeliness    and    pecuHar    pene- 
trating power  of  Mr.  Beecher's  discourses.     In  theology 
he   belonged    to    the    New    England    school  with    which 
Andovcr  was  identified,  and    its  chief    features  he  held 
apparently  to  the  end.     It  seems  to  have  been  a  type   of 
theology  'that    easily    lent    itself     to    the    dignified,    ele- 
vated,   serious,  and    elaborate    pulpit    product.     To    the 
quality  of  subject-matter  and  to  its  organization  in  homi- 
letic form  the  style  of  rhetoric  and  oratory  seemed  thor- 
oughly appropriate.     Dr.  Storrs  was  a  historical  student, 
and  one  imagines  that  the  broad  scope  of  his  historic  studies 
may  also  have  been  tributary  in  the  homiletic  product  to 
the'  stately  movement  of  his  thought  and  even  to  the  type 
of  his  rhetoric  and  orator\\     It  was  the  lofty  and  ornate 
style   that  never    wholly  '  succeeded    in    adjusting    itself 
to   the    businesshke    colloquial    directness    that    is   most 
acceptable  in  our  day.     But  after  its  kind  it  was  superb, 
and  as  in  his  day  he' had  no  equal  in  it,  so  in  ours  he  has 
no  successor  who  is  his  counterpart.     It  was  a  highly 
graphic,  pictorial,  and  gorgeously  illustrative  type  of  rhetoric. 
He  had  the  distinguished  personal  presence  and  the  clarion 
voice  of  the  orator,  and  as  a  platform  speaker,  whose  ser- 
vices were  in  demand  on  great  occasions,  he  was  unmatched. 
In  early  years  he  used  the  manuscript,  to  which  at  that 
time  his  stvle  of  preaching  seemed    well    suited.      But 
in  later  years  he   followed  the   extemporaneous  method, 
which  was,  in  fact,  still  better  suited  to  his  type  of  preach- 
ing and  in  its  exactness  and  elegance  it  was  hardly  dif- 
ferentiable    from    the    best    manuscript    product    and  in 
oratorical  effects  was  far  superior.    As  a  platform  speaker 
he  was  trained  to  perfect  self-command.     With  consum- 
mate art  he  held  his  oratory  in  such  subjection  that  he  could, 


348  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

with  apparent  perfect  ease,  pass  from  the  lofty  to  the 
medium  or  even  common  colloquial  style.  His  work  on 
extemporaneous  preaching  gives  us  an  insight  into  his  own 
method,  and  the  discourses  that  remain  to  us  faithfully 
illustrate  the  ornateness  and  elaborateness  of  his  preaching. 
In  the  same  general  school  of  highly  rhetorical  preachers, 
but  with  distinct  points  of  differentiation,  may  be  classed 
Dr.  Frank  W.  Gunsaulus  of  Chicago.  In  his  theological 
point  of  view  he  is  apparently  in  closer  alHance  with  the 
more  aggressive  and  progressive  school  of  Congregational 
preachers.  His  style  of  preaching  is  much  more  impas- 
sioned, both  in  rhetoric  and  oratory,  than  that  of  Dr. 
Storrs,  and  one  may  venture  to  suggest  that  he  discloses 
the  beneficent  results  of  early  nurture  in  the  Methodist 
church.  His  familiarity  with  poetic  literature  and  his  own 
aptitude  for  poetic  expression  are  more  marked,  and  he 
may  be  called  much  more  of  a  rhetorician  than  orator. 
But  while  it  is  in  close  touch  with  the  thought  of  our  own 
time,  and  adjusts  itself  to  present  needs  and  conditions, 
there  is  a  certain  homiletic  elaborateness  in  his  preaching, 
a  certain  largeness  of  range  in  the  sweep  of  his  thought,  a 
stateliness  and  rhetorical  exuberance,  a  dramatic  intensity 
and  a  graphic  descriptiveness,  that  remind  us  of  the 
exalted  style  of  preaching  which  we  associate  with  a 
former  period.  In  those  quahties  of  quiet  philosophic 
reflection,  of  facile,  offhand,  homiletic  suggestion,  and  of 
colloquial  simplicity,  compactness,  and  directness  of  dic- 
tion, which  characterize  much  of  the  preaching  of  our  day, 
Dr.  Gunsaulus  does  not  seem  to  be  at  home.  The  recent 
volume  of  discourses,  entitled  "Paths  to  Power,"  illus- 
trates his  dominant  tendencies  as  a  rhetorician.  They 
were  indeed  occasional  discourses  which  justify  excep- 
tional thoroughness  and  range  of  discussion.  They  deal 
with  large  themes  which  appropriately  solicit  homiletic 
and  rhetorical  elaboration  and  were  dehvered  to  large 
and  exceptionally  intelligent    assemblies,   that    naturally 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        349 

evoke  the  rhetorical  and  oratorical  impulse.  It  is  prob- 
able that  Dr.  Gunsaulus'  ordinary  pastoral  discourses 
may  have  a  brevity,  an  immediateness,  and  a  subdued 
rhetorical  style  that  are  not  found  here.  Of  this  the 
general  public  that  is  unfamihar  with  his  ordinary 
preaching  cannot  judge.  And  yet  one  surmises  that  it 
would  be  difficult  for  Dr.  Gunsaulus,  even  on  ordinar}' 
occasions,  to  speak  othen\'ise  than  in  the  general  manner 
of  these  most  eloquent  discourses.  For  the  intellectual 
necessity  of  grapphng  with  large  themes,  and  of  following 
wide-ranging  courses  of  thought  and  the  impulse  of  the 
poet,  the  dramatist,  the  rhetorician,  and  the  orator,  seem  to 
dominate  him.  In  these  lofty,  wide-reaching,  and  swift- 
rushing  discourses  we  clearly  have  Dr.  Gunsaulus  at  his 
best,  and  those  surely  who  have  come  under  the  influence 
of  his  splendid  eloquence  will  not  reproach  him  for  not 
being  what  he  is  not. 

The  influence  of  Dr.  Horace  BushneU,^  with  respect  to 
general  theological  point  of  view,  and  measurably  with 
respect  to  rhetorical  form,  upon  the  generation  of  Congre- 
gational preachers  that  is  fast  passing  away,  and  more  re- 
motely and  indirectly  upon  the  generation  that  now  holds 
the  field,  has  been  decisive  and  permanent.  It  is  a  silent 
influence,  of  which  many  preachers  are  unconscious  or  not 
more  than  half  conscious,  but  for  which  no  man  can  be  un- 
grateful when  once  he  has  awakened  to  the  recognition 
of  it.  As  a  theological  thinker  Bushnell's  influence  upon 
the  preachers  of  our  day  has  been  stronger  than  his  homi- 
letic  influence.  Kis  careful,  orderly,  clear-cut,  logical, 
cumulative,  homiletic  method  is  not  altogether  in  hne  with 
the  oftTiand  homiletic  method  of  our  day.  A  type  of 
rhetoric  much  more  neglige  and  colloquial  than  Bush- 
nell's is  current.  Theological,  philosophical,  critical, 
and  literary  sources,  moreover,  which  were  not  accessible 
to  Dr.  Bushnell,  are  open  to  the  preachers  of  our  day  in 

*  See  chapter  on  Bushnell  in  "  Representative  Modern  Preachers." 


35°  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

rich  abundance,  and  these  agencies,  while  they  have  in  a 
sort  perpetuated  his  influence,  have  also  modified  it.     All 
these  agencies  that  have  come  to  the  front  are  seen  in  the 
substance  of  the  preaching  of  our  day  in  Congregational 
circles,  and  the  free  and  easy  rhetoric  and  oratory  of  a  demo- 
cratic age  is  everywhere  apparent.     The  ethical  element 
in  the  preaching  of  the  Congregational  churches  is  promi- 
nent, and  one  is  not  infrequently  forced  to  the  confession 
that  intellectual  and  ethical  interests  dominate  those  that 
are  spiritual.     It  is  a  serious  defect  of  much  of  the  preach- 
ing of  these  churches  that  a  type  of  theology  which  claims  to 
be,  and  is,  in  Hne  with  intellectual  and  moral  needs,  should 
fail  so  largely  to  stimulate  evangelistic  effort  and  to  meet  the 
needs  of  the  churches  as  commissioned  evangelistic  agen- 
cies.    What  calls  itself  "the  nev.'  theology"  fails  to  satisfy 
old  wants.     In  this  regard  it  is  inferior  to  the  preaching  of 
Enghsh  CongregationaHsm.     A  type  of  theology  that  would 
command  the  intelhgent  allegiance  of  men  must  vindicate 
itself  by  its  power  to  win  them  in  personal  allegiance  to 
•  Christ  from  sin  to  Hves  of  holiness  and  righteousness.     In 
all  this  it  has  adequate  possibilities.     It   needs   but   the 
touch  of  conscious  vocation  in  the  preacher  to  initiate 
a  new  era  of  evangehsm,  as  well  as  of  spiritual  edification 
and  of  moral  incentive. 

Prominent  in  the  new  generation  of  Congregational 
preachers,  and  foremost  in  the  first  hne,  is  Dr.  George  A. 
•  Gordon  of  the  Old  South  Church  of  Boston.  Although 
belonging  to  a  distinctly  different  school  of  preachers,  he  is, 
in  the  attention,  interest,  and  respect  which  his  preaching 
commands  from  the  intelhgent  pubhc  of  Boston,  in  some 
large  and  true  sense  the  successor  of  Philhps  Brooks.  He 
is  a  theological  and  philosophical  thinker  of  the  modern 
type,  and  his  preaching  reaches  a  high  level  of  intel- 
lectual power  without  announcing  or  obtruding  itself  in 
a  one-sided  manner.  It  is  the  constructive,  philosophical, 
theological,  and  ethical,  rather  than  the  critical  interest 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        351 

that  dominates  his  preaching.  He  is  at  home  with  the 
fundamental  aspects  of  ah  subjects  touched  by  him.  The 
ease  with  wliich  he  grasps  them  and  the  faciUty  with  which 
he  illustratively  unfolds  them  have  a  rallying  and  stimulating 
power  upon  all  intelhgent  hearers.  The  exaltation  of  the 
intellectual  aspects  of  rehgion  is  prominent  in  his  preaching. 
But  all  this  is  made  definitely  tributary  to  the  spiritual  Hfe 
of  men  and  to  their  larger  moral  interests.  The  ease,  the 
affluence,  the  noble  simphcity,  the  genuine ^  sincerity, 
directness,  forcefulness,  and  not  infrequent  poetic  elegance 
of  his  speech  and  the  manly  straightforwardness  of  his 
dehverance  are  an  effective  carrying  power  for  thoughts 
and  emotions  and  moral  impulses  that  must  penetrate 
deeply  the  life  of  those  to  whom  he  ministers. 

ii.  The  contributions  made  by  Unitarianism  to  the 
preaching  of  this  country,  to  which  reference  has  already 
been  made,  have  been  permanent  because  the  influences 
and  agencies  that  wrought  in  their  production  have  been 
permanent.  They  have  worked  specifically  and  directly 
through  the  Unitarian  movement  and  have  reached  far 
beyond  its  own  bounds  into  other  communions.  We  may 
not  be  able  to  concede  all  that  has  been  claimed  for  it  as 
a  modifying  and  Uberahzing  agency  in  the  theology  of  the 
modern' pulpit.  There  are  sources  of  theological  eman- 
cipation that  are  entirely  independent  of  Unitarianism 
and  that  reach  directly  all  Protestant  churches.  These  in- 
fluences are  far  more  potent  than  any  that  centre  in  any  one 
Christian  communion,  however  thoroughly  it  may  have 
been  penetrated  by  them.  But  it  would  be  ungracious 
and  futile  to  attempt  to  minimize  the  strength  of  the  Uni- 
tarian movement  in  this  regard,  and  to  attempt  to  under- 
value other  and  more  important  contributions  which  it 
has  made  to  the  modern  pulpit  would  be  still  more  dis- 
creditable and  useless.  As  represented  by  Dr.  Channing 
it  was  not  the  production  of  a  theology  which  could  be 
called  hberal  that  was  the  chief  interest  of  the  Unitarian 


352  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

movement.  Other  interests  were  of  far  more  significance, 
and  the  broadening  of  the  theological  basis  was  only  one 
of  their  consequences. 

Its  intellectual  aspect  was  not  the  most  fundamental, 
but  it  was  the  most  obtrusive.  It  was  an  assertion  of 
the  rights  of  reason  in  religion.  It  pressed  the  claims 
of  the  intellectual  element  in  rehgion  and  involved  distrust 
of  and  dissatisfaction  with  its  traditional  philosophical 
defences.  Its  advocates  were  preeminently  intellectual 
men,  and  Channing  was  accepted  as  their  intellectual  leader. 
Calvinism  was  attacked  as  an  irrational  system.  But  as 
a  rational  movement  it  was  critical  rather  than  constructive. 
It  had  no  faith  in  or  tolerance  of  effort  at  accurate  state- 
ments of  theological  behefs.  It  is  a  Httle  singular  that  a 
movement  preeminently  in  the  interest  of  the  intellectual 
aspects  of  religion  should  have  been  content  to  abide  with 
negations.  Dr.  Channing,  hke  most  of  his  successors, 
objected  to  creeds.  The  creeds  of  the  Cahdnistic  churches 
were  of  course  the  chief  object  of  attack.  But  creeds  as 
such  of  whatever  sort  were  antagonized.  Dr.  Channing 
maintained  that  the  very  dimensions  of  rehgious  truth 
rendered  them  incapable  of  formulation.  But  his  chief 
objections  were  moral.  They  foster  insincerity.  They 
promote  controversy.  They  substitute  abstract  statements 
for  concrete  reaUties.  These  objections  may  be  vaUd  as 
against  many  of  the  historic  creeds.  But  they  are  not  as 
of  necessity  vahd  against  creeds  as  such. 

Defective,  however,  as  this  intellectual  reaction  may 
have  been,  its  critical  value  must  be  acknowledged,  for  it 
asserted  with  permanent  results  the  rights  of  religious 
inteUigence. 

But  Dr.  Channing's  reaction  against  Cahdnistic  ortho- 
doxy was  based  also  on  distinctively  religious  grounds. 
He  was  himself  a  man  of  profoundly  religious  nature.  He 
was  even  more  soHcitous  for  the  interests  of  Christian  piety 
than  for  those   of    Christian   intelhgence.     His  rehgious 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        353 

needs  were  not  met  by  the  traditional  theology  of  his  day. 
He  laid  much  stress  upon  the  rehgious  factor  in  the  de- 
velopment of  the  intellectual  life,  and  he  called  not  only 
for  a  better  type  of  moral  science  than  the  orthodoxy  of 
his  day  furnished  but  for  a  more  distinctively  spiritual 
philosophy  and  for  a  genuinely  spiritual  life.  It  cannot 
be  denied  that  Unitarianism  has  fostered  a  rehgion  of  rev- 
erence, of  communion  with  the  Father  of  spirits,  of  con- 
scientiousness, of  consecrated  devotion  to  the  cause  of 
truth,  a  rehgion  of  trust  and  of  love  for  God  and  man. 
Upon  these  aspects  of  rehgion  its  pulpit  has  laid  much 
stress.  Its  type  of  rehgious  f eehng  and  sentiment  has  not 
been  adequate  to  the  demands  of  the  Christian  hfe  and  has 
not  kept  it  in  touch  with  other  communions.  But  it  is 
certain  that  in  our  day  it  finds  a  larger  place  for  the  reh- 
gion of  feehng  and  sentiment  and  a  larger  place  for  the 
rehgious  imagination  than  was  found  in  its  old  rational- 
istic type,  and  it  would  be  a  serious  wrong  to  deny  that 
the  preaching  of  Unitarianism  has  made  valuable  con- 
tributions to  the  rehgious  hfe  of  the  churches. 

But  the  revolt  of  Unitarianism  was  fundamentally 
ethical  as  well  as  rehgious  and  intellectual.  It  was  in  fact 
against  the  moral  aspects  of  Calvinism  that  Dr.  Channing 
especially  reacted,  and  the  ethical  elements  of  rehgion 
have  been  strongly  accentuated  by  all  his  successors.  It 
was  a  movement  in  the  direction  of  moral  reform.  No  class 
of  men  in  this  country  have  been  so  thoroughly  committed 
to  the  interests  of  pubhc  morality  and  none  have  been  so 
rehable  in  their  devotion  to  all  great  questions  of  personal 
and  civic  righteousness  and  to  all  great  questions  of  human 
philanthropy  as  the  ministers  of  the  Unitarian  church. 

The  Unitarian  movement  was  also  associated  ^^ith  a 
new  hterary  development  and  became  the  patron  and  ad- 
vocate of  a  higher  type  of  hterary  culture  and  of  a  better 
literary  quahty  in  the  work  of  the  pulpit.  Dr.  Channing 
was  the  most  distinctive  representative  of  this  movement. 


354  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

He  perhaps  laid  undue  stress  upon  the  intellectual  and 
aesthetic  influence  of  literature  in  the  elevation  of  human 
character.  He  had  a  good  deal  to  say  about  the  careful 
education  and  culture,  especially  of  the  superior  minds  of 
the  nation  and  about  the  importance  of  keeping  them  at 
the  front.  It  is  chiefly  through  this  higher  class  of  edu- 
cated and  cultivated  minds  that  the  world  is  to  be  bettered. 
This  was  practically  the  advocacy  of  an  educated  aristocracy, 
a  literary  aristocracy.  The  world  has  seen  what  hterature 
as  such  cannot  do.  It  has  seen  also  what  of  evil  hterature 
of  a  certain  type  can  do.  It  has  especially  seen  the  inade- 
quacy in  the  realm  of  reUgious  and  ecclesiastical  hfe  of  a 
cultivated  intellectual  aristocracy  such  as  is  represented  by 
the  Unitarian  church.  There  can  be  no  doubt,  however, 
that  the  Hterary  aspect  of  the  Unitarian  movement  has 
been  highly  beneficial  in  many  ways  and  that  this  influence 
has  been  felt  in  other  Christian  communions. 

Dr.  Channing  justly  criticised  the  stilted  hterary  style 
that  was  prevalent  in  his  day.  It  was  artificially  ornate. 
It  was  overelaborate  and  stereotyped,  and  its  diction  was 
remote  from  ordinary  human  life.  It  was  defective  in 
simpHcity  and  naturalness.  It  was  the  highly  respectable 
dress-parade  style  and  it  needed  reform.  Channing  cul- 
tivated a  modest  style,  and  he  did  it  from  moral  as 
well  as  aesthetic  considerations.  It  was  somewhat  diffuse. 
It  knew  how  to  be  commonplace  sometimes,  and  was 
more  elaborate  than  the  style  that  became  prominent 
later  on.  But  we  have  the  beginnings  here  of  a  better 
literary  style  for  the  American  pulpit.  Dr.  Lyman 
Beecher  shared  this  new  hterary  spirit.  But  Dr.  Charming 
had  a  more  complete  literary  equipment,  and  Unitarianism 
has  done  more  probably  than  any  other  rehgious  body  to 
elevate  the  hterary  standards  of  the  American  pulpit 
in  their  intellectual  and  aesthetic  aspects.  Harvard  Uni- 
versity has  been  a  potent  influence  in  this  behalf. 

A  later  type  of  Unitarian  preaching  appears  in  Theodore 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        355 

Parker.  He  would  not  be  acknowledged  as  in  all  respects 
the  representative  modern  preacher  of  his  school.  His 
method  was  too  destructive,  too  belligerent,  too  extrava- 
gantly rhetorical.  In  these  respects  his  follo%ving  has  been 
limited.  But  the  chief  influences  that  made  themselves 
manifest  in  his  preaching  appear  also  in  modified  form 
in  our  own  day,  and  in  all  these  fundamental  aspects  his 
own  personal  influence  has  not  been  without  significance. 
Parker  found  the  already  accomphshed  results  of  the 
Unitarian  movement  in  its  philosophical  and  critical  as- 
pects unsatisfactor}^  and  inadequate.  Channing  had 
ghmpses  of  a  new  philosophical  basis  for  theology,  but  had 
not  the  requisite  equipment  for  working  it  out.  But  in 
Parker's  early  student  days  the  great  German  philosophi- 
cal thinkers  were  beginning  to  make  themselves  felt  among 
English-speaking  people,  especially  Kant,  Hegel,  Schelling, 
and  Schleiermacher.  They  opened  visions  of  a  new  philo- 
sophic basis  for  theology.  Parker,  who  was  a  competent 
German  scholar,  knew  most  of  these  men  at  first  hand. 
The  transcendental  philosophy  of  Emerson  and  Carlyie,  in 
accordance  with  which  religion  was  conceived  as  the  intui- 
tion of  the  divine  in  and  by  the  human,  was  of  German 
origin.  Parker  accepted  this  transcendental  idealism 
and  was  perhaps  the  first  prominent  preacher,  after  Emer- 
son, in  the  United  States,  to  do  so.  He  became  the  ad- 
vocate of  a  religion  which  is  the  immediate  intuition  of 
God  and  of  all  forms  of  rehgious  truth.  It  is  an 
intuition  that  brings  the  immediate  knowledge  of  reli- 
gious realities  and  which  can  therefore  dispense  with  the 
external  media  of  revelation.  In  this  way  the  super- 
naturalism  of  Christianity  was  eliminated.  Parker  was 
also  one  of  the  first  if  not  the  first  preacher  in  the  United 
States  to  famiharize  himself  with  Strauss'  "Leben  Jesu." 
With  modifications,  he  adopted  Strauss'  mythical  theory. 
The  Hegelian  position  of  Strauss  that  the  Absolute  cannot 
reveal  himself  in  a  human  finite  personaUty,  Parker  ap- 


356  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

parently  accepted,  and  this  involved  his  committal  to  belief 
in  the  simple  humanity  of  Jesus,  and  a  denial  of  anything 
in  Him  that  is  di^dne  save  in  the  sense  that  the  human  is 
divine.  This  strictly  naturahstic  position  as  regards 
Christianity  and  the  person  of  Christ  is  a  new  phase  of 
the  Unitarian  movement  of  which  Parker  was  the  pioneer. 
He  was  a  man  of  rare  genius,  an  eager  student,  a  compe- 
tent scholar,  a  brilUant  rhetorician,  of  a  sensitive  conscience 
and  of  a  rude  Yankee  honesty,  of  great  religious  suscepti- 
bility, of  a  restless,  radical  mind,  and  not  without  great 
intellectual  ambitions.  He  was  a  man  of  colossal  emo- 
tions and  of  most  ardent  human  sympathies.  He  loved 
his  fellow-men  with  a  genuine  human  love  and  wept  when 
they  spoke  well  of  him.  His  reverence  and  love  for 
God  are  disclosed  in  his  pubhc  prayers,  which  for  elevation 
and  tenderness  of  human  feeHng  and  fehcity  of  Uterary 
expression  are  among  the  choicest  in  all  hturgical  Uterature. 
He  was  a  Puritan  of  the  Puritans,  but  in  modern  form. 
All  the  intellectual  robustness  and  independence,  moral 
intensity,  resolution  and  integrity,  high  spiritual  and  poetic 
susceptibihty,  that  belong  to  the  best  Puritan  stock  were 
in  him.  But  he  was  a  man  of  sharp  and  unbridled 
tongue.  As  a  satirist  he  perhaps  had  no  equal  in  his  day. 
His  address  upon  the  death  of  Daniel  Webster  has  been 
called  the  best  specimen  of  sarcasm  in  the  English  lan- 
guage since  Shakespeare's  address  of  Mark  Antony  in 
JuKus  Cassar.  German  and  English  romanticism  ap- 
pealed to,  evoked,  and  developed  his  native  Hterary  and 
rhetorical  instincts,  and  the  influence  of  it  is  seen  in  the  ex- 
uberance and  extravagance  of  his  hterary  style.  As  an 
instrument  in  turning  his  philosophic  ideahsm  and  his 
radical  Bibhcal  criticism  against  the  orthodoxy  as  well  as 
the  timid  HberaHsm  of  his  day  it  was  tremendously 
efTective.  He  appeared  at  a  stormy  period  in  American 
history  and  his  hot  rhetoric  was  turned  with  still  greater 
effectiveness  against  the  moral  evils  of  his  time.    He  was 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        357 

an  iconoclast.  He  was  radical,  uncompromising,  merciless, 
in  his  handling  of  antagonists,  and  lacked  the  qualities 
of  a  Christian  gentleman.  No  one  will  question  his  great 
abilities  or  the  genuineness  of  his  philanthropy  or  the  wealth 
of  his  human  sympathy,  and  he  doubtless  had  an  important 
message  for  his  age.  But  it  is  a  great  pity  that  such  splen- 
did powers  should  not  have  been  devoted  to  a  more  con- 
structive and  a  more  reasonable  method  of  theological 
teaching,  and  to  a  less  fiercely  pugnacious  method  of 
moral  conflict. 

His  sermons,  which,  after  their  kind,  are  masterpieces 
in  vigorous  grasp  of  thought,  orderly  movement,  and  power- 
ful rhetoric,  are  a  valuable  study.  But  they  are  an  ad- 
monition against  the  polemic  method,  an  admonition  to 
which  happily  the  best  Unitarian  preachers  of  our  day 
have  given  heed.  For  we  find  a  decided  change  in  this 
regard  in  the  preaching  even  of  such  stalwart  and  un- 
compromising representatives  of  the  ethical  school  as  Dr. 
J.  Minot  Savage  and  Dr.  Charles  E.  Dole.  And  despite 
the  tendency  to  an  extreme  subjective  ideahsm  which  in 
general  characterizes  the  preaching  of  Unitarianism,  we 
find  preachers,  Uke  the  devout,  refined,  and  scholarly 
Dr.  Francis  G.  Peabody,  who  more  fully  disclose  its  reli- 
gious spirit  and  who  have  numerous  touching  points  with 
the  so-called  evangelical  communions. 

iii.  Presbyterianism,  as  already  intimated,  has  also,  in 
its  own  way,  made  prominent  the  intellectual  aspects  of 
religion,  and  thus  it  perpetuates  the  traditions  of  the  Re- 
formed church  of  which  it  is  a  special  product.  It  shares 
with  American  CongregationaHsm  the  inheritance  of 
English  Puritanism  that  resisted  the  tyranny  of  Anglican 
injustice,  and  has  close  affihations  with  Dutch  Presbyterian- 
ism that  defied  Spanish  Romanism,  with  the  Presbyterian- 
ism of  the  Scottish  Covenanters  that  antagonized  AJnghcan 
prelacy,  and  with  that  of  the  French  Huguenots  that  with- 
stood the  persecutions  of  the  GalUc  church.     All  of  these 


358  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

sources  have  made  their  contributions  to  and  left  their 
impress  upon  this  in  some  respects  most  sturdy  and  most 
Protestant  of  all  American  Protestant  communions. 
Loyalty  to  the  apostoHc  Scriptures,  as  interpreted,  not 
in  entire  independence  of  its  confessions  of  faith,  but 
largely  through  and  by  means  of  them,  has  been  the  formal 
or  objective  principle  of  its  church  hfe,  and  here  this  prin- 
ciple has  found  sturdy  advocacy.  Over  against  this  it  has 
set  the  witnessing  presence  of  the  Spirit  of  truth  in  the  soul 
of  the  individual  behevcr,and  in  the  community  of  behevers, 
and  to  this,  as  the  material  or  subjective  principle  of  its 
church  Ufe,  it  has  claimed  coordinate  allegiance.  The 
outworking,  however  inconsistently  and  inharmoniouslyj 
of  these  two  principles,  upon  which  such  emphasis  is  set, 
has  secured  for  American  Presbyterianism,  and  particularly 
for  its  preaching,  a  certain  distinctiveness.  One  may  not 
accept  the  Presbyterian  preacher's  point  of  view,  may  not 
agree  with  his  theological  teachings,  nor  hke  the  overcon- 
fident tone  with  which  he  sometimes  presents  his  religious 
opinions;  one  may  often  find  his  preaching  lacking  in 
popular  effectiveness;  but  its  positiveness  of  tone  and 
method,  despite  the  excesses  of  the  dogmatic  principle,  has 
always  secured  for  it  an  element  of  strength.  Presbyteri- 
anism has  supported  a  vigorous  and  manly  pulpit  and  has 
contributed  an  element  of  virihty  to  American  preaching 
in  general.  There  is  a  certain  sturdiness  and  balance  in  it 
which  are  not  always  found  in  the  preaching  of  the  more 
distinctively  democratic  churches,  whose  theological, 
ecclesiastical,  and  homiletic  training,  although  superior 
in  breadth,  perhaps,  lacks  the  closeness,  the  thoroughness, 
and  the  orderly  method  found  in  Presbyterian  training. 
Whatever  its  Hmitations  or  its  excesses,  it  certainly  illus- 
trates, and  in  a  way  vindicates,  the  importance  which  it 
attaches  to  its  theology,  as  embodying  the  great  truths 
and  facts  of  revealed  rehgion  as  it  understands  them,  and 
the  importance  which  it  attaches  to   sound   theological 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        359 

and  ecclesiastical  education  and  training  in  its  ministry. 
In  the  quality  of  intellectual  strength,  in  the  clear  discrimi- 
nation, the  orderly  method,  of  the  best  type  of  Presbyterian 
preaching,  in  the  eminently  edifying  character  of  the 
preacher's  conduct  of  public  worship,  as  well  as  in  his  de- 
votion to  and  grasp  of  pastoral  and  parochial  problems, 
one  must  certainly  recognize  the  marks  of  a  church  that 
has  always  been  strong  in  its  teaching  function  and  that  has 
always  insisted  upon  a  thoroughly  equipped  ministry, 
and  one  will  readily  see  why  the  Presbyterian  church  should 
have  the  best  endowed  and  most  fully  manned  theological 
schools  in  the  country. 

The  relative  degree  of  emphasis  that  has  been  put  upon 
the  objective  or  the  subjective  principle  of  church  life 
in  the  exigencies  of  its  history,  accounts  largely  for  the 
peculiarities  of  its  development  and  especially  for  the 
divisions  that  have  occurred  within  its  ranks.  The  objec- 
tive and  subjective  principles  do  not  always  work  har- 
moniously together.  External  authority,  whether  in 
church  creed  or  in  church  pohty,  does  not  always  adjust 
itself  to  inner  experience,  whether  mental  or  moral  or 
spiritual.  The  strongest  adherents  of  the  objective  prin- 
ciple have  been  found  in  the  old  school  of  Presbyterianism. 
It  has  appropriated  the  principle  of  external  authority 
in  rehgito  more  fully  than  the  new  school.  The  teach- 
ings of  its  confessions,  which  it  is  claimed  are  found  in 
the  Scriptures,  are  accepted  largely  upon  the  basis 
of  external  divine  authority  to  which  is  added  also 
external  ecclesiastical  authority.  These  confessions  are 
interpreted  more  rigidly  and  enforced  more  strictly  than 
is  the  case  with  the  new  school.  The  old- school  man  is 
more  fully  committed  to  the  dogmatic  principle.  He  be- 
lieves stoutly  in  external  authority.  He  is  a  close  sub- 
scriptionist  and  he  is  a  high  churchman.  His  church  order 
is  found  in  the  inspired  Scriptures  and  he  naturally  insists 
upon  rigid  conformity  thereto.     In  the  conduct  of  church 


360  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

affairs  old- school  men  have  never  cordially  accepted  the 
voluntary  principle.  All  church  activities  should  be 
under  the  control  of  the  organized  body.  They  cherish 
the  ecclesiastical  habit  of  mind.  They  are  less  free  and 
flexible  in  their  movements,  less  responsive  to  humanistic 
influences.  They  have  not  to  so  great  an  extent  as  the  new- 
school  men  appropriated  the  ethical  as  distinguished  from 
the  dogmatic  elements  in  Christianity  and  have  not  always 
been  so  fully  committed  to  great  questions  of  moral  reform 
in  civic  Hfe.  The  preaching  of  this  school  has  in  general 
been  characterized  by  theological,  ecclesiastical,  and  ethical 
conservatism.  No  Protestant  church  in  the  country, 
north  or  south,  can  point  to  a  larger  number  of  intel- 
lectually able  preachers,  or  preachers  more  honestly  loyal 
to  the  strong  features  of  the  Reformed  theology.  The 
intelHgent  student  of  American  preaching  cannot  afford 
to  ignore  them.  They  have  conserved  important  interests 
of  church  Hfe.  They  have  developed  important  aspects 
of  the  masculine  quahty  in  Christianity  and  have  held  atten- 
tion to  its  practical  value  for  the  Christian  life  in  such  sort 
and  to  such  an  extent  as  otherwise  might  have  failed.  But 
of  the  inadequacy  and  the  ultimate  ineffectiveness  of  their 
dogmatic  method  the  change  to  which  the  preaching  of 
this  school  has  been  subjected  and  which  it  manifests  in  our 
day  is  evidence.  The  preaching  of  men  hke  ex-President 
Patton  of  Princeton,  whose  intellectual  scope,  strength,  and 
subtlety,  whose  dialectical  skill,  free  range  in  the  high 
altitudes  of  theological  discussion,  ethical  manHness,  and 
rhetorical  cleverness  and  cogency  are  the  admiration  of  the 
intelligent  classes,  in  his  communion  as  well  as  out  of  it, 
discloses  more  numerous  touching  points  with  modem 
thought,  and  especially  with  modem  Hfe,  even  in  his  general 
dogmatic  attitude  with  respect  to  the  truth  presented  and 
with  respect  to  those  to  whom  it  is  presented,  than  we  find 
in  his  more  distinctively  theological  discussions.  We 
seem  to  discover  in  him  the  elements  of  the  ancient  con- 


THE  TREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        361 

servative  and  of  the  modem  liberal,  of  the  eighteenth-cen- 
tury theologian  and  of  the  twentieth-century  preacher. 
In  preachers  hke  the  Rev.  Dr.  Herrick  Johnson  of  Chicago 
and  the  Rev.  Dr.  Burrell  of  New  York  one  finds  the  sub- 
stance a  conservative  theology  and  the  heroic  tone  of 
assurance  that  comes  from  an  anchorage  ground  in  external 
authority,  combined  with  a  popular  method  of  rhetorical 
effectiveness  that  suggests  large  inroads  of  the  time- spirit, 
not  only  into  their  practical  but  into  their  student  hfe  as 
well. 

In  Mr.  Robert  E.  Speare,  who  may  be  regarded  as  the 
most  forceful  and  impressive  lay  preacher  in  the  United 
States,  one  discovers  the  result,  the  beneficent  result,  of  the 
conservative  habit  of  mind  in  a  certain  intellectual  stalwart- 
ness  and  steadiness  and  sobriety  in  which  all  serious- 
minded  men  will  rejoice,  and  which  surely  bring  great 
honor  to  the  school  from  which  he  came.  In  what  seems 
to  some  a  certain  tone  of  moral  severity  and  austerity 
he  may  discredit  the  more  dehcate  and  tender  and  gracious 
feminine  aspects  of  Christianity.  But  we  can  aftord  to 
leave  this  to  prophets  of  another  type,  and  wish  that  this 
regal  prophetic  voice  may  sound  no  other  ethical  note  than 
that  which  so  strongly  impresses  the  young  men  of  this 
generation,  to  whom  he  has  a  God-given  message. 

The  new-school  Presbyterian  has  anchored  more  closely 
to  the  subjective  principle  in  church  life.  He  supports 
a  moderate  theory  of  creed  subscription.  In  the  conscious- 
ness of  spiritual  freedom  he  has  claimed  and  defended  the 
right  to  a  broad  and  flexible  interpretation  of  church 
theology,  and  has  always  been  the  pioneer  in  demands  for 
its  modification.  Not  less  inteUigently  committed  than  his 
old- school  colleague  to  the  demand  for  an  educated  min- 
istry, he  has  sometimes  found  it  necessary  to  lay  propor- 
tionate stress  upon  piety  and  godhness.  He  is  not  in 
theory  a  high  churchman  and  has  not  been  the  advocate 
of  a  high-church  poHty.     In   his  philanthropic  and  mis- 


362  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

sionary  work  he  has  been  able  freely  to  affiliate  in  volun 
tary  methods  of  church  work  with  the  ministers  of  the 
Congregational  churches,  whose  pohty  has  been  sufficiently 
broad  and  flexible  to  entertain  him  and  his  church  in  close 
ecclesiastical  confederation  and  whose  spirit  has  been 
sufficiently  generous  and  self-forgetting  to  give  him  and  his 
church,  too,  a  certain  precedence  in  the  products  of  the 
joint  partnership.  The  new-school  Presbyterian  is  the 
theological  and  ecclesiastical  hberal  of  his  church.  It  is 
this  school  that  has  supported  a  type  of  Christianity  and 
even  a  type  of  evangehsm  that  claims  the  right  to  teach  a 
new  theology,  or  at  least  a  new  method  of  interpreting  an 
old  theology,  and  its  preachers,  lay  and  clerical,  have  been 
conspicuous  in  their  championship  of  an  evangehsm  that 
rests  more  completely  upon  the  material  than  upon  the 
formal  principle  of  church  Kfe.  This  is  the  school  that 
has  entered  most  deeply  into  the  moral  elements  of  Chris- 
tianity, that  has  participated  most  vigorously  in  discussions 
of  the  great  questions  of  philanthropy  and  of  moral  reform, 
and  that  stands  at  the  front  to-day  in  its  acceptance  and 
advocacy  of  the  historical  and  critical  method  of  deaUng 
with  sacred  Scripture.  The  founding  of  Princeton  Col- 
lege was  one  of  the  results  of  its  earher  propagandism.  It 
was  responsive  to  the  "new  Hght"  that  emerged  a  httle 
farther  east  in  the  New  Haven  theology,  and  now  it  is 
Union  Theological  Seminary,  with  its  magnificent  endow- 
ment and  equipment,  that  is  its  stronghold.  Union  is  in 
Hne  of  succession  and  of  development  from,  the  earher 
Yale,  and  holds  an  equally  independent  position  with 
respect  to  its  attitude  towards  all  the  problems  of  modem 
theology  in  all  its  branches.  The  preachers  of  new- school 
Presbyterianism  are  among  the  most  gifted  and  popularly 
impressive  preachers  of  the  country.  Many  of  them  have 
been  interpreters  of  New  England  theology  and  have 
been  closely  connected  with  Congregational  churches  and 
ministers.     Dr.  Albert  Barnes,  friend  and  associate  of  Dr. 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        363 

Lyman  Beecher,  was  estimated  as  the  most  successful 
Biblical  preacher  of  his  time.  Dr.  Thomas  H.  Skimier, 
a  southerner  by  birth,  early  connected  wdth  Princeton,  as 
have  been  many  other  new- school  men,  in  the  first  period  of 
his  professional  life  professor  of  sacred  rhetoric  in  An- 
dover  Theological  Seminary,  one  of  the  founders  of  Union 
Theological  Seminary,  ultimately  professor  of  sacred  rhet- 
oric and  pastoral  theology  there,  and  translator  of  Vinet's 
"Homiletics,"  was  for  many  years  a  pastor  and  was  kno^^^l 
as  one  of  the  most  accompHshed  and  edifpng  pastoral 
preachers  of  his  day.  Dr.  WiUiam  Adams,  a  New  Eng- 
lander  by  birth  and  education,  at  one  time  a  Congregational 
pastor  in  Massachusetts,  ultimately  successor  to  Dr. 
Skinner  in  Union  Theological  Seminary,  for  twenty  years 
the  greatly  successful  pastor  of  Madison  Square  Presby- 
terian Church  of  New  York,  was,  perhaps,  in  his  day,  the 
most  gifted,  cultivated,  and  persuasive  preacher  of  his 
school. 

Dr.  Roswell  D.  Hitchcock,  a  brilhant  rhetorical  ro- 
manticist of  a  modified  type,  an  evangehcal  transcenden- 
tahst,  was  another  New  England  product.  Inspiring 
as  a  teacher  of  historical  theology,  to  which  the  last  and 
most  fruitful  years  of  his  hfe  were  devoted,  he  was  perhaps 
more  distinctively  a  preacher,  whose  vocation  is  certified 
in  the  profound  impressions  made  by  him  upon  the  most 
cultivated  audiences  in  New  York  City  and  in  earUer  years 
not  the  less  upon  the  students  of  Bowdoin  College  of  a 
generation  fast  passing  who  hstened  to  him  in  his  Saturday 
evening  discourses  upon  unique  religious  themes,  who  criti- 
cised him  and  admired  him,  who  were  stimulated  by  his 
striking  thoughts  and  impressed  by  his  sententious  speech 
and  his  rich  sonorous  voice,  and  who  will  remember  him 
to  the  end. 

Dr.  Parkhurst  illustrates  the  moral  severities  of  old 
Puritanism  in  new  form.  In  the  use  of  rhetorical  instru- 
ments drawn  from  a  repertory  seemingly  inexhaustible 


364  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

he  vindicates  in  a  unique  manner  the  traditions  of  his 
school  in  its  devotion  to  public  decency  and  morality. 

Dr.  Henry  van  Dyke  is  the  pulpit  artist  of  his  school. 
In  skilful  handling  of  the  manuscript,  in  clearness,  force, 
chasteness,  and  fehcity  of  diction,  and  in  a  directness  and 
cogency  of  moral  appeal  which  seemingly  his  later  Hterary 
interests  have  not  enhanced,  he  stands  in  the  front  Hne  of 
American  preachers. 

iv.  I.  The  preaching  of  the  Baptist  churches  in  its  best 
estate  is  not  readily  distinguishable  materially  or  formally 
from  that  of  other  Protestant  communions.  It  shares  the 
broader  outlook,  the  eager,  aggressive  moral  enterprise, 
and  the  rhetorical  forcefulness  that  are  so  common  in  all 
Christian  communities  in  the  preaching  of  our  day.  But 
in  its  interpretation  of  the  spirit  and  its  advocacy  of  the 
mission  of  the  Baptist  churches  it  embodies  certain  dis- 
tinctive features,  which  the  closer  inspection  will  not  fail 
to  discover.  To  restore  apostolic  Christianity,  as  they 
understand  it,  is  the  conscious  historic  vocation  of  these 
churches.  Other  churches  have  undertaken  the  same  task. 
The  Puritan  churches  that  antagonized  them  had  already 
undertaken  it,  and  with  devout  sincerity  thought  them- 
selves doing  God's  service  in  their  apostoUc  opposition. 
But  the  Baptist  apostles  very  correctly  thought  that  those 
who  held  the  field  by  a  sort  of  prescriptive  right  misap- 
plied apostoHc  principles,  and  they  beheved  that  ths  work 
of  restoration  should  be  done  more  thoroughly.  They 
w^ould  accordingly  push  it  forward  more  completely  and 
consistently. 

In  the  strict  formal  sense  such  an  undertaking  is  of 
course  wholly  impossible.  Most  Protestant  churches  have 
claimed  to  be  apostolic.  But  apostolicity  of  spirit  and  of 
principle  is  the  only  apostohcity  possible  for  any  church. 
Modem  New  Testament  critical  investigation  has  made  it 
perfectly  evident  that  no  form  of  church  life  can  be  the 
exact  counterpart  of  that  which  was  found  in  the  early 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        365 

Christian  communities.  And  yet  it  is  true  that  in  the 
Baptist  churches  we  find  more  fully  than  in  most  others  a 
restoration  in  many  ways  of  "the  simphcity  that  is  in 
Christ."  Many  of  the  material  and  perhaps  some  of  the 
formal  aspects  of  apostoHc  Christianity  may  be  found  here. 
And  the  rapid  growth  and  development  of  these  churches 
may  be  in  some  important  sense  a  vindication  of  their 
claims.  At  any  rate  it  is  distinctly  true  that  the  accent 
which  they  have  laid  upon  apostoHc  spirituahty,  freedom, 
and  simplicity  has  met  a  real  want  in  the  rehgious  hfe  of 
this  country. 

Unlike  the  mystical  and  rationalistic  sects,  which  begin 
and  sometimes  end  with  the  subjective  principle,  the  Bap- 
tist communion  begins  with  the  formal  principle  of  church 
hfe.  It  is  of  course  fully  committed  to  the  subjective  or 
experimental  principle,  but  it  seeks  a  Bibhcal  foundation 
for  it.  The  spirituahty  of  the  church,  which  may  be 
called  its  fundamental  tenet,  is  defended  not  merely  or 
primarily  upon  the  basis  of  the  priestly  rights  of  all  be- 
hevers  or  upon  the  basis  of  the  vahdity  of  the  subjective 
or  material  principle  of  church  hfe,  but  upon  the  ground 
of  the  sufficient  authority  of  the  apostoHc  Scriptures. 
This  has  been  the  historic  position  of  the  Baptist  churches. 
What  modification  modem  Bibhcal  criticism  may  neces- 
sitate remains  to  be  seen.  At  any  rate,  however,  they  will 
not  cease  to  claim,  till  they  are  completely  revolutionized, 
that  there  can  be  no  Christian  church  according  to  the  New 
Testament  type  which  does  not  rest  upon  a  regenerate 
membership.  They  only  can  be  proper  members  of  the 
church  who  have  consciously  entered  into  the  experiences 
of  the  Christian  Hfe  and  into  covenant  relations  with  Christ 
and  with  each  other.  For  this  they  claim  definite  apostoHc 
authority.  Relying  upon  this  same  authority,  they  believe 
themselves  to  have  restored  the  original  form  of  baptism. 
But  it  is,  after  ah,  not  the  restoration  of  the  form  that  has 
chief  significance.     It  is  its  original  significance  as  symbol 


366  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

of  regeneration  that  is  chiefly  important,  for  this  sanctions 
its  appHcation  to  those  only  who  have  entered  the  Christian 
life  and  assumed  covenant  relations.  Restoring  thus  the 
original  spiritual  significance  of  the  church  and  of  its  ordi- 
nances, they  have  also  restored  the  apostoHc  conception  of 
the  Christian  ministry,  and  of  its  mission.  As  a  spiritual 
body  the  church  must  be  democratic.  It  reports  to  no 
human  master  and  its  members  have  coordinate  rights.  As 
being  a  self-governing  body  under  Christ,  the  representative 
principle  has  no  standing  ground.  The  local  churches 
may  formulate  creeds.  The  community  of  churches  may 
accept  them  as  expressing  their  theological  behefs,  but 
only  in  so  far  as  they  may  be  assumed  faithfully  to  interpret 
the  Scriptures.  The  rejection  of  all  doctrinal  formularies 
is  a  later  development.  It  is  the  Church  of  the  Disciples 
that  has  carried  the  "restoration"  to  what  it  regards  as 
its  proper  hmits  in  the  rejection  of  all  human  creeds.  In 
accordance  with  apostohc  precedent  and  in  harmony  with 
the  reahties  of  Christian  experience,  the  Christian  ministry 
must  rest  upon  a  divine  call.  Evidences  of  this  call  are 
found  in  moral  uprightness,  consecrated  Christian  char- 
acter, consciousness  of  vocation,  knowledge  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, experience  of  their  power  in  the  inner  hfe,  aptness 
to  teach,  and  adequate  gifts  of  speech.  Intellectual  quaH- 
fications  are  not  ignored,  but  they  are  secondary.  As  an 
autonomous  spiritual  body  the  church  is  competent  to 
discern  and  to  select  the  men  who  are  called  of  God  to  be 
its  leaders  and  need  not  commit  the  task  to  theological 
experts.  The  spiritual  insight  and  the  sanctified  common 
sense  of  this  spiritual  body  are  fully  adequate  to  the  task. 
Any  man  who  has  the  call  may  be  placed  by  the  church  in 
the  ministry.  In  all  this  we  surely  find  an  echo  of  the 
apostohc  church  and  it  is  impossible  that  traces  of  influ- 
ence from  this  restoration  movement  should  not  appear  in 
the  preaching  of  the  Baptist  churches. 
It  has  first  of  all  secured  a  distinct  BibHcal  quality  to 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        367 

their  preaching.  This  is  one  of  its  most  prominent  and 
characteristic  features.  In  this  of  course  it  is  not  unique. 
All  Protestant  pulpits  get  back  to  the  Biblical  basis. 
But  a  radical  movement  to  bring  primitive  Christianity 
back  into  the  pulpit  must  commit  the  preacher  in  an 
exceptional  manner  to  a  Biblical  basis.  Whatever  the 
form  of  the  sermon,  it  must  have  a  Scriptural  flavor. 
Even  the  topical,  as  well  as  textual  or  expository,  sermon 
will  strike  the  Bibhcal  note.  All  restoration  churches  of 
whatever  name  are  definitely  committed  to  this  basis.  The 
church  of  the  Disciples,  which  has  pushed  the  apostolicity 
of  the  church,  its  ordinances,  its  ministrv',  and  its  preaching 
to  the  utmost  Hmits,  discloses  more  fully  perhaps  than  any 
other  religious  body  a  type  of  preaching  that  is  in  the  ma- 
terial and  formal  sense  Biblical.  It  has  sent  forth  a  strong 
body  of  plain,  direct,  forceful  Scriptural  preachers,  and  the 
growth  of  this  body  of  churches  demonstrates  the  power 
of  such  preaching  upon  the  constituency  to  which  it 
appeals.  But  all  branches  of  the  Baptist  communion  share 
this  reverence  for  Biblical  truth  and  have  caught  and  perpet- 
uated the  apostolic  spirit.  It  matters  not  that  the  preacher 
may  have  entered  fully  into  the  spirit  of  modem  culture, 
and  large  numbers  have  done  so,  or  that  he  invades  human 
life  with  all  the  modem  pulpit  instruments  at  his  command, 
he  will  always,  if  true  to  his  church,  find  a  Scriptural  back- 
ground for  his  message,  and  will  bind  the  early  ages  of  his 
faith  to  the  age  in  which  and  to  which  he  ministers. 

The  evangelistic  note  should  also  be  prominent.  And 
so  we  find  it.  To  win  men  to  Jesus  Christ,  after  the  man- 
ner of  the  apostohc  church  and  in  obedience  to  its  own 
evang^hstic  commission,  by  the  presentation  of  the  Gos- 
pel of  God's  grace  has  always  been  one  of  its  most  promi- 
nent objects.  Whatever  of  increasing  importance  they 
may  attach  to  Christian  edification,  the  Baptist  churches 
are  expected  never  to  forget  their  evangelistic  mission. 
Evangehsm  is  not  less  important,  even  in  the  estimate  of 


368  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

their  most  modern  and  most  cultivated  communities,  than 
Christian  nurture,  and  in  their  increasing  sohcitude  for  a 
Christian  education  that  shall  ht  men  for  worthy  church 
membership,  they  do  not  abandon  efforts  at  evangelistic 
conquest  in  bringing  them  under  sway  of  the  Gospel.  Not 
even  in  the  Methodist  church,  whose  traditions  commit  it 
preeminently  to  the  work  of  conquest,  are  the  principles 
of  evangelism  more  fully  recognized  or  the  demands  of  an 
evangelistic  church  more  fully  met,  or  the  habits  of  evan- 
gelism more  fully  developed. 

Decisive  and  emphatic  as  may  be  the  rejection  theo- 
retically of  all  doctrinal  formularies  or  of  the  use  of  all 
human  forms  of  theologic  thought,  it  is  impossible  that  the 
stalwart  thinkers  of  any  religious  communion  should  fail 
to  smuggle  doctrinal  elements  into  their  preaching.  The 
claim  that  any  man  who  comes  into  close  quarters  with 
the  great  commanding  truths  of  redemptive  religion,  can 
preach  Bibhcally  without  in  an  important  sense  preaching 
doctrinally,  is  delusive.  Biblical  forms  of  truth  must  be 
interpreted,  and  they  must  be  interpreted  in  terms  of 
intelligible  thought.  They  need  not  be  interpreted  in  the 
terms  of  the  historic  church  creeds,  but  they  must  some- 
how be  interpreted  doctrinally.  The  futility  of  undertak- 
ing to  eliminate  doctrine  by  presenting  truth  in  Bibhcal 
form  is  seen  in  the  Church  of  the  Disciples.  Its  preachers 
claim  to  be  Scriptural  rather  than  doctrinal.  But  they 
cannot  escape  the  forms  of  modem  thought.  The  think- 
ing men  among  them  work  a  good  deal  of  doctrine  into 
their  preaching.  They  may  be  Biblical,  but  they  are  not 
the  less  doctrinal.  But  the  Baptist  churches  in  general 
have  never  rejected  human  creeds.  Their  preachers, 
who  have  the  requisite  training,  may  readily  be  doctrinal 
preachers.  Of  such  preachers  there  have  been  many 
in  times  past.  They  have  been  trained  theologians,  vvho 
have  defended  their  own  doctrinal  tenets  on  rational 
as  well  as  Scriptural  grounds.     And   there  are   Baptist 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        369 

preachers  in  our  own  day  who  work  the  theology  of  the 
New  Testament  into  their  preaching  and  who  in  the  doing 
make  use  of  modem  critical  instruments.  The  typical 
Baptist  preacher  of  our  day  may  not  be  called  a  doctrinal 
preacher,  but  he  is  nothing  if  not  a  didactic  preacher, 
and  it  is  doubtful  if  any  church  can  furnish  a  better  class 
of  didactic  preachers.  With  a  tone  of  moral  seriousness, 
of  devout  piety,  of  ardent  feehng  and  sympathy,  they  pre- 
sent a  robust  and  vigorous  defence  of  the  great  truths  of 
Bibhcal  rehgion  and  in  the  doing  they  handle  skilfully 
modem  methods  of  apology. 

The  experimental  quality  is  also  distinguishable.  As 
grounding  all  church  and  ministerial  hfe  upon  Christian 
experience,  how  should  it  be  otherwise?  With  the  inner 
life  of  the  soul  in  its  search  for  salvation,  with  its  aspiration 
for  holiness  and  righteousness,  with  the  burdens,  perplexi- 
ties, doubts,  contradictions,  sorrows,  and  conflicts  of  the 
rehgious  life  it  must,  as  of  necessity,  deal.  Hence,  while 
evangelistic  in  aim,  or  didactic  in  content,  it  will  not  fail 
to  be  pastoral  and  experimental  in  spirit.  In  the  combi- 
nation of  gifts  for  evangehstic  incentive  with  gifts  for  pas- 
toral edification  there  have  been  no  preachers  in  this  coun- 
try that  have  surpassed  many  of  those  that  have  been 
connected  with  the  Baptist  churches.  More  conscientious 
and  consecrated  men  in  their  dealing  with  the  experiences 
of  the  human  soul  are  not  found.  The  writer  recalls  a 
preacher  of  this  communion  who  never  entered  the  pulpit 
without  the  consecrated  purpose  to  unfold  and  to  enforce 
the  truths  of  redemptive  rehgion  with  the  utmost  skill 
and  force  at  command  for  the  edification  and  the  awaken- 
ing of  human  souls.  Nor  was  he  an  exceptional  product 
of  the  nurture  of  his  church. 

The  variety  that  characterizes  the  preaching  of  the  Bap- 
tist churches,  not  only  in  different  sections  of  the  country 
but  in  different  parts  of  the  same  section,  is  due,  in  large 
measure,  to  diversities  in  the  equipment  of  their  ministry. 

2B 


370  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

The  value  of  thorough  theological  education  has  never 
been  minimized  by  these  churches.  They  have  simply 
held  merely  intellectual  considerations  in  subordination. 
Rehgion  is  not  knowledge,  Christianity  is  more  than  truth. 
The  intellect  is  not  the  chief  organ  of  the  rehgious  Ufe. 
A  call  to  preach  is  not  primarily  a  call  to  indoctrinate, 
but  a  call  to  evangeHze,  Rehgious  instruction  can  never 
be  an  end.  It  legitimates  itself  by  reahzing  a  larger  and 
a  more  practical  end.  That  a  man  is  mentally  and  edu- 
cationally competent  to  be  the  intellectual  leader  of  men  is 
no  adequate  proof  of  his  call  to  the  ministry.  Any  man 
who  is  morally  sound,  personally  consecrated,  knows 
his  Bible,  and  has  some  gift  for  teaching,  may  enter  the 
ministry  of  these  churches  and  will  find  there  a  sphere  for 
usefulness.  The  preacher  may  be  crude  in  thought,  un- 
trained in  feeling,  polemical  in  spirit  perhaps,  and  possibly 
rude  in  method  and  manner.  Such  preachers  are  some- 
times found.  But  they  are  hkely  to  be  men  of  force  and 
effectiveness,  and  their  consecrated  gifts  indicate  their 
calhng.  The  Baptist  churches  have  never  made  the  mis- 
take which  some  Protestant  communions  have  made  of 
undervaluing  spiritual  gifts  in  the  preacher.  It  has  doubt- 
less been  to  their  advantage  that  they  have  been  wilhng 
to  accept  men  for  the  ministry  whose  spiritual  vastly  sur- 
passes their  intellectual  equipment.  The  Congregational 
and  Presbyterian  churches  have  been  obhged  to  do  the 
same  thing.  In  fact  all  Protestant  churches  have  done  it. 
But  the  Baptist,  equally  with  the  Methodist  churches,  have 
accepted  this  as  a  working  apostohc  principle  in  their  esti- 
mate of  the  ministry.  And  yet  they  have  a  place  for  the 
man  of  rare  intellectual  equipment.  He  may  do  a  work 
that  his  less  fully  educated  brother  may  not  do.  They 
may  work  side  by  side,  and  neither  may  question  the  call 
of  the  other,  for  it  rests  in  either  case  upon  a  more  than 
human  authority.  No  communion,  not  even  the  Metho- 
dist, exhibits  greater  variety  in  the  quahty  of  its  preaching. 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        371 

But  in  the  general  advance  in  education,  and  especially 
in  the  increasing  inteUigence  and  culture  of  its  own  con- 
stituency, the  average  intellectual  equipment  of  its  minis- 
try has  advanced.  In  a  combination  of  gifts  that  fits  him 
for  pastoral  edification  and  evangeUstic  incentive  the  Bap- 
tist preacher  has  a  certain  preeminence. 

In  this  general  advance  of  Christian  intelligence  and 
catholicity,  these  churches  are  abandoning  "close  com- 
munion," in  which  their  English  brethren  have  preceded 
them.  Possibly  we  may  look  for  still  further  modifications 
in  their  conceptions  of  the  formal  significance  of  the  church 
and  its  ordinances,  that  may  secure  to  the  future  a  more 
united  body  of  democratic  churches  in  the  defence  and 
propagation  of  a  truly  catholic  Christianity. 

2.  President  Francis  Wayland,  of  BrowTi  University, 
whose  professional  career  as  pastor  and  college  officer 
reached  from  the  middle  of  the  first  on  into  the  third  quar- 
ter of  the  last  century  and  covered  a  period  of  more  than 
forty  years,  was  in  his  day  the  most  widely  known  and  in- 
fluential representative  of  the  Baptist  communion,  of  whose 
principles  he  was  a  vigorous  and  intelhgent  advocate.  He 
was  a  man  of  many  acquisitions  and  accompHshments, 
He  was  a  teacher  of  mental,  moral,  and  economic  science, 
and  author  of  works,  upon  these  subjects,  that  were  once  in 
general  use.  He  was  famihar  with  the  chief  problems  of 
university  education  according  to  the  standards  of  his  day, 
and  was,  in  fact,  in  many  ways  in  advance  of  those  standards. 
But  he  was  above  all  else  a  man  of  practical  spirit  and  was 
supremely  devoted  to  the  interests  of  moral  and  religious 
life.  As  a  preacher  he  was  faithful  to  what  he  understood 
to  be  the  mission  of  his  church,  and  he  combined  in  an 
interesting  manner  and  in  an  eminent  degree  the  quality 
of  pastoral  edification  with  that  of  evangelistic  incentive. 
His  preaching  was  always  substantial  and  aimed  at  prac- 
tical instructiveness.  He  selected  weighty  and  important 
themes  and  handled  them  with  a  conscientious  thorough- 


372  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

ness  suggestive  of  a  dread  of  inadequateness  and  superfi- 
ciality. His  diction  was  plain,  straightforward,  simple, 
readily  apprehended  by  the  average  hearer,  bearing  always 
above  all  else  the  mark  of  sound  common  sense,  without 
strong  emotion,  without  the  color  of  imaginative  imagery, 
and  rarely  rising  to  any  height  of  what  calls  itself  elo- 
quence, but  never  without  dignity  and  a  certain  homely 
grace,  and  above  all  was  suggestive  of  moral  sincerity  and 
of  religious  devoutness. 

Three  volumes  of  discourses,  each  in  its  own  way, 
illustrate  his  various  qualities  as  a  preacher.  The  "  Occa- 
sional Discourses"  were,  for  the  most  pait,  preached 
during  the  early  period  of  his  career,  the  first  in  the  series 
on  the  "Moral  Dignity  of  the  Missionary  Enterprise," 
one  of  his  most  noted  sermons,  having  been  preached  when 
he  was  twenty-seven  years  old  and  all  of  them  before  the 
age  of  forty.  They  were  preached  in  connection  with 
ordination  services,  or  anniversary  exercises  of  reHgious, 
philanthropic,  or  educational  societies,  and  suggest  not 
only  the  early  maturity  of  his  powers  but  the  early  reputa- 
tion and  influence  he  had  acquired.  Some  of  them  touch 
upon  the  duties  of  Christian  citizenship,  and  illustrate 
his  patriotic  impulses  and  the  ethical  quahty  of  his  reli- 
gion. The  discourse  on  the  Death  of  John  Adams  and 
Thomas  Jefferson,  which  occurred  in  1826  when  he  was 
thirty  years  of  age,  is  notable  for  its  clear  insight,  its  care- 
ful analysis,  and  its  sound  political  and  religious  teachings. 
These  sermons  are  long  and  elaborate  and  illustrate  his 
devotion  to  the  teaching  as  well  as  the  advocate  mission 
of  the  preacher. 

The  "Sermons  to  the  Churches"  were  issued  after  his 
retirement  from  the  presidency  of  Brown  University, 
and  while  supplying  the  old  Roger  Williams  Church  of 
Providence.  They  also  are  occasional  sermons,  preached 
in  different  parts  of  the  country,  but  are  of  a  later  date  and 
of  a  somewhat  different  quality  from  those  above  men- 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        373 

tioned.  Their  object  is  to  incite  the  churches  to  more 
earnest  evangelistic  efforts  and  to  more  consecrated,  well 
ordered,  and  consistent  Christian  hves.  They  were 
addressed  primarily  to  the  churches  of  his  own  communion, 
but  their  appeal  was  pertinent  to  the  needs  of  all  the 
churches  of  his  day  of  whatever  name,  among  whom  he 
was  well  known  and  was  always  welcome  as  a  counsellor 
and  friend.  These  discourses  also  are  characteristically 
long,  elaborate,  and  thorough. 

The  most  interesting  and  popularly  effective  of  all  his 
collected  discourses  are  his  "University  Sermons,"  issued 
near  the  close  of  his  presidency.  There  is  a  very  marked 
contrast  between  them  and  the  University  sermons  of  our 
day.  They  belong  to  a  ditt'erent  world  of  thought  and  of 
interest.  The  subjects  discussed  are  characteristically 
weighty  and  important,  and  although  not  without  attrac- 
tiveness and  impressiveness,  they  have  not  the  obtrusive 
popular  effectiveness  which  we  have  learned  to  expect  from 
such  discourses.  Such  subjects  as  the  character  of  God, 
the  character  of  man,  the  person  and  work  of  Christ,  the 
Christian  church,  suggest  the  sphere  in  which  his  thought 
moves.  "The  Fall  of  Peter"  is  a  sermon  of  graphic  de- 
scriptiveness  and  of  strong  moral  incentive  and  furnishes 
the  nearest  approach  to  popular  impressiveness.  The  two 
addresses  on  "Recent  Revolutions  in  Europe"  are  to  the 
reader  of  our  day  of  special  interest  as  a  resume  of  the  chief 
features  of  the  popular  uprisings  in  Europe  near  the  middle 
of  the  last  centur}'.  The  sermons  on  "The  Duty  of 
Obedience  to  the  Civil  Magistrate"  are  after  the  best 
manner  of  the  old  Puritan  preachers  of  New  England. 
All  of  these  discourses,  whatever  the  subjects  discussed, 
disclose  his  zeal  for  the  conversion  of  men.  This  evan- 
geUstic  spirit  he  carried  into  all  his  relations  with  his 
students.  Personal  counsel,  personal  appeal,  and  even 
personal  prayer  for  and  with  them  was  his  constant  habit 
during  all  the  years  of  his  presidency.     As  president  and 


374  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

as  preacher  he  was  scrupulously  faithful  to  his  conception 
of  the  mission  of  the  Baptist  churches  and  to  his  conception 
of  what  their  ministry  should  be.  President  Wayland 
reminds  us  in  some  respects  of  Arnold  of  Rugby.  He 
did  a  work  not  unhke  that  of  Arnold.  He  disclosed  the 
same  solicitude  for  the  moral  and  rehgious  welfare  of  his 
students  that  Arnold  did. 

It  was  Arnold's  task  to  elevate  the  moral  and  religious 
tone  of  the  English  schools,  and  such  with  different  instru- 
ments and  by  different  methods,  was  substantially  the 
work  of  President  Wayland.  In  this  his  success  was  not 
equal  to  that  of  Dr.  Arnold,  but  it  was  substantial,  and  his 
influence  in  the  counsels  of  rehgious  men  of  all  communions 
was  strong  and  permanent. 

A  much  more  accomphshed  preacher  than  President 
Wayland  was  the  Rev.  Dr.  William  R.  Williams  of  New 
York  City,  —  a  prominent  figure  among  exceptionally  able 
preachers  three  or  four  decades  ago.  He  was  after  a 
fashion  the  John  Foster  of  the  American  Baptist  churches, 
although  less  of  an  essayist,  and  more  of  a  preacher  than 
Foster.  To  the  native  popular  preaching  gifts  of  a  Welsh- 
man were  added  the  accomphshments  of  the  thinker  and 
the  scholar.  He  was  a  topical  preacher,  and  although 
Biblical  in  tone  and  substance,  his  product  incorporated 
freely  and  fully  the  results  of  his  humanistic  and  particu- 
larly his  historical  studies.  His  sermons  often  appeared  in 
the  New  York  press  and  were  frequently  pubhshed  in 
pam.phlet  form.  During  the  most  active  period  of  his  min- 
istry there  appeared  a  volume  of  discourses  entitled  "  Re- 
ligious Progress  "  or  "  The  Development  of  the  Christian 
Character,"  from  2  Pet.  i.  5-7,  which  illustrates  the 
thoroughness  with  which  he  was  accustomed  to  treat  his 
subjects,  his  illustrative  skiU,  and  the  grace  and  aflfluence  of 
his  literary  style.  His  career  is  a  demonstration  that  conse- 
crated gifts  of  learning  and  literary  culture  and  trained  elo- 
quence may  be  included  in  the  call  of  God's  Spirit  to  the 


THE    PREACHING   OF    THE   UNITED    STATES     375 

Christian  ministrv.     The  influence  of  such  men  in  elevat- 
ing the  standards  of  the  Baptist  ministry  has  been  potent. 
The  Baptist  churches  seem  to  have  become  easily  do- 
mesticated in  the  southern  states.     Their  spirit,  principles, 
and  methods  somehow  appeal  to  widely  different  classes 
of  the  people,  and  the  southern  gift  for  animated  and  force- 
ful pubUc  speech  has  doubtless  been  tributary  to  their 
progress.     At  the  same  time  one  fancies  that  this  gift  has 
itself  been  fostered  by  their  free  tutelage.     At  any  rate 
a  good  deal  of  effective  preaching  is  found  in  the  southern 
Baptist  churches.     Their  ministers  are,  in  general,  not 
so  well  educated  as  in  the  north.     But  the  more  worthily 
educated  combine  the  quahties  in  an  eminent  degree  of 
the  instructive  and  the  impressional  preacher.     Contem- 
porary with  Dr.  WilUams  of  New  York  was  Dr.  Richard 
Fuller  of  South  CaroHna,  and  subsequently  of  Bahimore, 
Maryland,  whose  name  not  less  than  his  gifts  give  him 
a  certain  right  to  prominence  in  this  communion.     In  his 
preaching  we  find  the  doctrinal  orthodoxy,  the  evangeUcal 
ardor,  the  evangelistic  zeal,  the  illustrative  iniagery,  the 
emotional   enthusiasm,    the    pathos   and    sentiment,    the 
vocal  variety  and    energetic  pantomime,  which  we  have 
learned  to  look  for  in  the  typical  southern  preacher.     He 
followed  the  extemporaneous  method  and  in  it  developed  to 
the  utmost  his  oratorical  gifts.     He  had  studied  and  prac- 
tised law,  and,  as  in  many  another  case,  his  training  in 
this  profession  doubtless  contributed  not  only  to  the  facihty 
and  freedom  and  accuracy  of  his  diction  and  the  grace  and 
force  combined  of  his  elocution,  but  to  the  discriminating 
quaUty  of  his  thought  and  to  the  lucidity  of  his  homiletic 
ocder.     His  preaching  furnished  one  of  the  best  illustra- 
tions of  southern  pulpit  orator\'. 

The  native  gifts  for  preaching  of  the  ministers  of  the 
southern  Baptist  church  are  perhaps  not  inferior  to^  those 
of  the  north,  but  there  have  been  and  doubtless  stilj  are 
a  larger  number  of  uneducated  and  untrained  men  in  its 


376  THE   MODERN    PULPIT 

ministry.  The  better  trained  men  are  with  the  north, 
and  Brown  University  and  Newton  Theological  Seminary 
have  been  for  them  prominent  sources  of  academic  and 
theological  culture. 

One  of  the  best  trained  men  in  his  communion,  and  an 
alumnus  of  these  schools,  was  the  Rev.  President  Ezekiel 
G.  Robinson,  D.D.  The  larger  portion  of  his  life  was 
spent  in  academic  and  theological  circles,  and  he  is  known 
chiefly  in  the  educational  work  of  his  denomination.  He 
was  professor  of  mental  and  moral  science  at  Rochester 
University,  later  on  at  Brown  University  and  subsequently 
its  president,  lecturer  at  Andovcr  Theological  Seminary 
on  Dogmatics,  ultimately  professor  in  Chicago  University 
of  Christian  Ethics  and  Apologetics,  and  was  the  author 
of  a  work  on  Christian  Theology  and  of  another  on  Chris- 
tian Ethics,  which  doubtless  contain  the  condensed  prod- 
uct of  his  work  as  teacher.  But  President  Robinson's 
Yale  lectures  on  Preaching  on  the  Lyman  Beecher  founda- 
tion in  1882  disclose  a  man  of  decidedly  practical  spirit 
and  are  of  value  as  indicating  the  insight  into  and  sym- 
pathy with  the  more  prominent  problems  of  the  Christian 
pastorate  of  a  man  whose  chief  life  experiences  were  in 
the  sphere  of  the  teacher.  Pie  spent  but  seven  years  in  the 
pastorate,  but  they  were  in  Cambridge,  Massachusetts, 
and  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  communities  of  exceptional  in- 
teUigence,  where  all  his  best  powers  as  a  preacher  must 
have  been  in  process  of  training  and  where  doubtless  the 
foundation  was  laid  for  the  extemporaneous  preaching  in 
which  he  excelled  and  of  which  in  his  Yale  Lectures 
he  was  a  somewhat  extreme  advocate.  His  preaching 
doubtless  illustrated  the  value  of  the  extemporaneous 
method  for  himself,  for  he  made  effective  use  of  it. 
But  if  the  Baptist  churches  were  to  commit  themselves 
wholly  to  Dr.  Robinson's  method,  they  would  rob 
themselves  of  an  important  source  of  educative  power. 
Even  the  memoriter  preacher,  against  whom  our  doughty 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        377 

Yale    lecturer  inveighs,  has  his  value    and    his   historic 
justification. 

One  of  the  most  successful  teachers  of  doctrinal  theology 
in  this  country  is  the  Rev.  Professor  WilHam  N.  Clarke, 
D.D.  But  the  preacher  is  behind  the  lecturer.  No  in- 
telligent person  can  have  Ustened  to  his  lectures  without 
recognizing  this.  Those  twenty-three  years  of  pastoral 
experience,  chiefly  in  exceptionally  intelligent  communities 
in  the  United  States,  have  been  richly  tributary  to  his  work 
as  teacher  of  doctrinal  theology.  On  the  other  hand  it  is 
equallv  evident  to  those  who  have  heard  him  preach  as 
well  as  lecture  that  his  teaching  is  proportionally  tributary 
to  his  preaching.  His  power  of  lucid  statement,  his  skill 
in  representing  occult  theologic  thought  in  readily  appre- 
hensible terms,  and  his  straightforwardness  and  coura- 
geous sincerity  are  quaHties  that  are  prominent  in  this  most 
interesting  and  convincing  of  theological  teachers  in  our 
day.  In  its  power  of  lucid  statem.ent,  in  its  fine  Christian 
feeling  and  sentiment,  its  suggestion  of  comradeship  with 
his  pupils,  its  clear  spiritual  insight,  and  in  the  feUcity  and 
aptness  of  its  diction,  his  "  Outlines  of  Christian  Theology" 
is  a  most  valuable  study  for  ministers  and  not  -vsithout  profit 
to  intelhgent  Christian  la}Tnen.  His  "Use  of  the  Scrip- 
tures in  Theology"  is  even  more  valuable,  if  possible,  to 
ministers  and  laymen  alike.  It  is  a  greatly  needed  and 
most  valuable  contribution  to  a  difficult  and  supremely 
important  subject,  and  in  its  skill  and  courage  is  successful 
to  a  degree  that  seemingly  would  have  been  impossible 
for  any  other  theological  teacher  of  the  country.  All  these 
qualities  that  have  given  him  eminence  as  a  teacher  he 
carries  into  the  pulpit,  and  he  is  not  less  interesting  and 
successful  as  a  preacher.  His  discourses  are  always 
thoughtful,  frequently  striking  and  fresh  in  suggestiveness, 
readily  apprehended,  orderly  in  method,  practical  in  aim, 
and  pungent  and  direct  in  statement.  They  have  the 
carrying  power  of  the  preacher's  fearlessness,  sincerity, 


378  THE  MODERN    PULPIT 

and  frankness.  In  a  straightforward,  colloquial,  unim- 
passioned,  prevailingly  reflective,  serious,  and  sincere 
manner,  wholly  without  rhetorical  arts  or  affectations  of 
oratorical  style,  he  speaks  straight  on. 

The  Rev.  President  WilUam  H.  R.  Faunce,  D.D.,  of 
Brown  University,  formerly  pastor  for  ten  years  of  Fifth 
Avenue  Baptist  church  of  New  York  City,  is  among  the 
most  acceptable  of  American  preachers  to  student  bodies. 
His  services  as  preacher  in  residence  at  Harvard  Univer- 
sity, and  as  frequent  preacher  in  most  of  our  prominent 
universities  and  colleges,  attest  the  appreciation  in  which 
he  is  held.  The  cathoHcity  of  his  spirit,  the  pertinence 
of  his  themes,  the  freshness  of  his  thought,  the  clearness 
of  his  method,  the  elegance  of  his  diction,  and  his  pleasing 
address  are  among  the  impressive  elements  of  his  preach- 
ing. 

The  Rev.  Robert  S.  MacArthur,  D.D.,  a  Canadian  by 
birth,  but  an  American  by  education,  for  more  than  a  quar- 
ter of  a  century  pastor  of  Calvary  Baptist  Church  of  New 
York  City,  is  one  of  the  popular,  forceful,  and  aggressive 
preachers  of  his  church.  His  copious  contributions  to  the 
rehgious  and  secular  press,  his  frequent  appearance  upon 
the  lecture  platform,  his  numerous  volumes  of  sermons, 
and  his  treatises  on  religious  themes  attest  his  rhetorical 
vigor  and  the  variety  and  productiveness  of  his  intellectual 
activities.  His  interest  in  hturgics,  which  has  borne  good 
fruit  in  his  own  service  of  worship,  is  somewhat  prominent 
in  a  church  that  is  inchned  to  identify  simplicity  with 
barrenness  and  the  artistic  with  the  artificial  and  unreal  in 
worship  and  that  needs  Hturgical  enrichment.  He  is  a  man 
of  positive  convictions,  an  ardent  but  intelhgent,  and  some- 
what apologetic  and  occasionally  polemical,  advocate  of 
the  principles  for  which  his  communion  stands,  a  gifted 
cosmopoUtan  preacher,  not  without  a  touch  of  ecclesiastical 
provincialism. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Russell  A.  Conwell  of  Philadelphia    is 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        379 

doubtless  the  most  distinguished  and  successful  institu- 
tional church  leader  in  the  Baptist  communion.  Edu- 
cated as  a  lawyer,  trained  in  the  practice  of  law,  a  soldier  in 
the  Union  Araiy,  a  newspaper  correspondent,  at  one  time 
an  official  of  the  state  of  Minnesota,  a  lecturer  and  author, 
he  has  brought  to  his  ministry,  upon  which  he  entered  when 
nearly  forty  years  of  age,  a  great  variety  of  experiences, 
and  of  trained  aptitudes,  which  have  contributed  to  his  re- 
markable success  as  an  institutional  church  leader,  and 
which  have  in  a  variety  of  ways  become  tributary  to  his 
manifest  native  gift  for  popular  public  speech. 

v.  American,  like  AngHcan  Episcopacy,  makes  promi- 
nent the  institutional  aspects  of  religion.  The  importance 
of  the  organized,  visible  unity  of  the  church,  of  its  historic 
continuity,  and  the  dependence  of  the  individual  upon  its 
corporate  life  are  distinguishing  features  of  its  teaching. 
Opinions  vary  indeed  with  respect  to  what  is  essential  to 
the  being  and  authority  of  the  church.  But  there  is  gen- 
eral agreement  as  to  the  practical  importance  of  an 
organized,  visible,  historic  community  for  the  support  of 
the  Christian  life  and  for  the  propagation  of  Christianity. 

I.  The  most  exaggerated  forms  of  institutionalism  are 
found  in  "high"  Episcopacy.  To  its  adherents  the  term 
suggests  an  exalted  and  worthy  estimate  of  the  visible  his- 
toric church.  To  its  opponents  it  suggests  an  extravagant 
and  unwarrantable  assumption.  It  is  "high  and  mighty" 
ecclesiasticism.  In  the  second  half  of  the  last  century 
this  branch  of  the  church  was  quickened  into  fresh  and 
vigorous  hfe  and  it  made  rapid  progress.  At  first  it  was 
a  relatively  independent  American  movement,  but  it  sub- 
sequently came  under  the  influence  of  the  "Oxford  re- 
vival" and,  as  in  England,  developed  in  the  direction  of 
ritualism.  It  held  precedence  in  the  home  field,  and  de- 
veloped rapidly  even  in  the  western  portion  of  the  country, 
where  one  might  least  have  expected  it.  In  Hne  with 
Romanism  it  allies  the  Christian  with  the  Jewish  church. 


38o  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

In  organized  Judaism  it  finds  a  prototype  of  organized 
Christianity.  The  three  orders  were  of  Hebrew  origin 
and  were  transferred  to  the  Christian  church.  It  fails 
to  differentiate  the  church  from  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
There  is  a  well-defined  line,  which  one  may  readily  recog- 
nize by  visible  marks,  between  the  church,  as  the  Kingdom 
of  God,  and  the  uncovenanted  and  unconsecrated  king- 
dom of  this  world.  The  boundary  line  is  as  distinct  as  the 
boundary  Kne  between  two  nations.  To  belong  to  this 
church  is  to  belong  to  Christ.  To  be  alien  from  it  in 
heart  is  to  be  ahen  from  Christ. 

The  apostles  were  church  officers  ordained  by  Christ 
not  merely  to  evangehze  the  world,  but  to  teach  and  rule 
the  church  and  to  administer  in  his  name,  and  by  his  au- 
thority, its  sacraments  and  discipUne.  As  a  genuinely 
religious  body  it  of  course  does  not  fail  to  inculcate  personal 
and  experimental  piety.  But  the  subjective  principle  in 
rehgion  fails  of  adequate  recognition.  The  individual 
Christian  may  indeed  stand  in  immediate  personal  rela- 
tion with  Christ,  but  the  stress  of  its  contention  is  laid  upon 
his  identification  with  the  visible  church  and  upon  his 
mediate  relation  with  Christ  as  the  head  of  the  church 
through  it  and  through  its  ordinances.  The  sacraments 
are  the  chief  media  of  grace  and  communicate  it  effica- 
ciously. Episcopal  ordination  alone  is  valid,  because  it 
alone  is  in  the  apostohc  order  and  because  efficient  minis- 
terial grace  is  conditioned  by  this  order.  Thus  the  ex- 
ternal, divine  authority  of  the  so-called  apostohc  church  is 
pushed  to  the  front,  and  the  objective,  institutional,  cor- 
porate, historical,  and  traditional  aspects  of  rehgion  receive 
disproportionate,  not  to  say  erroneous,  emphasis.  Under 
the  reactions  of  the  mukifold  forces  of  modern  life  the 
movement  has  spent  itself.  Rituahsm,  as  in  England, 
may  be  gaining  ground,  although  not  in  extremest  forms 
which  are  exotic  to  American  ecclesiasticism,  but  high 
Episcopacy  as  a  dogmatic  principle,  claiming  sole  apostohc 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        38 1 

order  and  authority,  can  no  longer  successfully  manipu- 
late historic  facts. 

The  effects  of  this  high  ecclesiasticism  upon  the  work 
of  the  preacher  will  be  evident.  Its  value  in  many  ways 
we  may  not  question.  It  is  doubtless  true  that  the  rehgious 
life  of  the  entire  church  has  been  quickened  by  it,  and  the 
preacher  has  caught  the  influence.  It  has  fostered  in  the 
preacher  a  more  devout  and  reverential  habit  of  mind. 
The  spiritual  tone  of  his  preaching  is  therefore  of  a  higher 
order.  It  has  enriched  the  artistic  aspects  of  rehgious 
worship.  It  has  developed  its  poetic  and  prophetic  svm- 
boHsm,  and  the  hturgical  has  become  more  fuUv  tributar}' 
to  the  homiletic  interest.  The  sacred  forms  of  rehgion 
are  more  fully  respected.  The  importance  of  rehgion  as 
a  special  interest,  and  the  necessity  of  what  is  special  to 
its  universal  interest,  are  more  fully  recognized.  It  has 
done  a  needed  work  in  awakening  a  new  church  conscience. 
The  lack  of  institutional  loyalty  and  of  conscious  unity  of 
life  have  been  a  serious  defect  in  many  of  our  autonomous 
churches.  A  movement  that  holds  attention  to  the  corporate 
and  historic  Hfe  of  the  church  cannot  fail  to  reach  benefi- 
cently beyond  its  ovm.  borders.  It  has  laid  new  accent 
upon  the  educative  value  of  rehgious  symbolism  and 
thereby  may  have  contributed  to  the  revival  in  other  reh- 
gious communions,  in  some  measure  at  least,  of  respect 
for  their  own  sacred  ordinances.  By  exalting  the  organ- 
ized, visible  church,  it  has  held  our  attention  to  its  impor- 
tance for  the  individual  Christian  Hfe,  and  in  a  sort  has 
anticipated  what  modern  Ritschhanism  has  in  a  very  differ- 
ent manner  sought  to  accomphsh.  If  in  all  the  American 
churches  there  is  found  to-day  a  somewhat  fuller  recogni- 
tion of  the  importance  of  organized,  historic  Christianity, 
it  is  due  in  some  considerable  measure  at  least  to  the  activi- 
ties of  this  ecclesiastical  school. 

But  its  exaggerations  may  not  be  minimized.  It  shares 
the  defects  of  Enghsh  high  churchmanship.     It  has  over- 


382  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

worked  the  objective  principle  in  church  life.  Its  preachers 
disclose  the  institutional  habit  of  mind  in  excess.  Its 
dogmatic  principle  is  not  conducive  to  the  highest  intel- 
lectual candor,  nor  to  the  cultivation  of  a  genuine  historic 
and  critical  spirit.  Like  its  rival  school  it  has  fostered  the 
polemical  temper.  Its  pulpit  has  carried  the  archaic  note. 
Unlike  its  Anghcan  counterpart,  the  intellectual  fibre  of 
its  preachers  has  not  been  adequately  developed  by  its 
tutelage.  Its  scholarship  has  been  meagre.  Its  educa- 
tional agencies  have  failed  to  meet  the  demands  of  advanc- 
ing hfe.  Its  schools  have  been  poorly  equipped,  and  those 
who  bear  their  degrees  have  not  magnified  their  signifi- 
cance. Its  conception  of  the  functions  of  the  Christian 
ministry  have  been  defective  and  confused.  The  objects 
contemplated  in  training  men  for  the  ministry  have  been 
one-sided  or  contradictory.  It  has  substituted  the  pro- 
fessional for  the  vocational  aspects  of  the  ministry  and  its 
methods  of  securing  and  training  candidates  for  clerical 
orders  have  often  failed  to  introduce  to  its  service  the  most 
desirable  men.  This  has  been  true  of  all  branches  of  the 
church,  but  especially  of  the  one  under  consideration.  A 
conservative  habit  of  mind  has  hmited  the  enterprise  of  its 
clerg}^  They  have  failed  to  enter  aggressively  into  the 
life  of  the  modem  world.  Other  schools  have  in  this  re- 
gard been  in  advance  of  it.  With  the  great  moral  prob- 
lems of  the  civic  community  it  has  not  grappled  as  it  should 
or  might  have  done.  In  so  far  as  it  has  entered  this  field 
at  all,  it  has  been  by  methods  that  are  ecclesiastical  and 
exclusive  and  it  has  failed  to  cooperate  with  other  Chris- 
tian communions  in  its  philanthropies.  Its  catholicity 
is  formal  and  in  effect  partisan.  In  devotion  to  its  exclu- 
sive ecclesiastical  methods  it  formerly  withheld  itself  almost 
wholly  from  the  entire  field  of  moral  reform  as  such  dis- 
tinctively. With  respect  to  the  institution  of  slavery  it  was 
largely  silent  or  apologetic.  To  the  influence  of  this  branch 
of  the  church  it  was  in  large  measure  due  that  there  was  no 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES   383 

break  between  the  northern  and  southern  sections  over  the 
question  of  slavery  and  of  secession.  Fortunate  this  may 
have  been  for  the  ultimate  external  unity  of  the  church  and 
it  has  been  regarded  as  matter  for  congratulation.  But  it 
was  at  cost  of  the  moral  power  of  the  church.  Much  of 
what  is  here  said  might  be  supported  by  evidence  from 
within.  And  all  this  has  borne  fruit  in  the  preaching  of 
high  episcopacy.  But  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  this 
is  true  chiefly  of  a  past  generation.  Far  better  things  can 
be  said  of  it  in  our  own  day. 

With  the  prominent  representative  men  of  this  school, 
who  were  identified  with  its  early  fortunes  and  who  tri- 
umphed in  its  later  successes  and  with  their  gifts  as  preach- 
ers, it  is  not  possible  nor  is  it  important  for  us  to  Hnger. 
It  is  clear  enough  that  they  must  have  been  men  of  ex- 
traordinary endowments.  A  school  so  seemingly  exotic 
to  American  ecclesiasticism  could  never  have  won  its  way 
without  exceptionally  able  leadership.  Its  rapid  advance 
was  doubtless  measurably  due  to  certain  favoring  con- 
ditions of  the  time,  to  a  revival  of  interest  in  the  historic 
church,  to  a  new  quickening  of  aesthetic  sentiment,  to 
theological  unrest,  to  aspiration  for  a  higher  rehgious 
Hfe,  to  dissatisfaction  with  a  sentimental  type  of  piety, 
and  to  a  reaction  against  the  ecclesiastical  disintegra- 
tions of  the  day  as  seen  in  various  Christian  sects.  But 
to  have  brought  this  movement  against  bitter  opposition 
into  such  predominance  as  to  dislodge  from  its  preemi- 
nence the  rival  school  which  had  held  the  field  is  proof  not 
only  of  enthusiastic  devotion  and  of  extraordinary  executive 
enterprise,  but  of  very  skilful  advocacy  on  the  part  of 
its  leaders.  They  were  picked  men,  men  of  mark  not  only 
in  the  handhng  of  affairs  but  in  their  apologetic  methods 
and  in  their  persuasive  presentation  of  their  cause  to  their 
fellow-men.  They  were  intellectual  and  cultivated  men 
who  beheved  in  their  mission,  were  devoted  to  it,  handled 
its  interests  with  consummate  adroitness,  and  won  the 
ear  for  it  even  of  a  reluctant  and  protesting  pubhc. 


384  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

Bishop  Hobart  of  New  York  entered  the  field  in  the 
early  period  of  the  movement.  Before  he  entered  the 
bishopric  he  had  become  known  as  the  successful  rector 
of  Trinity  Church,  which,  hke  St.  Paul's  of  London,  was 
in  some  sort  a  centre  for  the  movement.  He  was  especially 
influential  in  furthering  the  educational  interests  of  the 
cause  and  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  General  Theo- 
logical Seminary.  He  had  a  genius  for  affairs.  He 
had  the  enthusiasm,  the  self-reliance  and  self-possession, 
the  confidence  in  his  cause  and  devotion  to  it,  the  resolu- 
tion and  tenacity  of  purpose,  the  resourcefulness,  the  tire- 
less activity  and  the  skilful  advocacy,  that  belong  to  the 
spirit  of  an  ecclesiastical  leader  of  the  highest  rank.  He 
was  a  fruitful  thinker  and  wrote  upon  a  variety  of  ecclesi- 
astical subjects,  largely  of  a  practical  sort,  all  of  which 
became  tributary  to  his  propaganda.  He  was  intense 
and  proportionately  provincial  and  was  a  lively  polemist 
according  to  the  fashion  of  his  day.  Even  in  the  advocacy 
of  the  cathohcity  of  which  his  school  talks  so  much,  and 
which  is  so  largely  external,  formal  and  ecclesiastical,  he  was 
belhgerent  and  one-sided.  He  was  on  the  one  side  a  pietist 
and  on  the  other  an  institutionalist,  and  his  religious 
enthusiasm  combined  with  his  intellectual  vigor  and 
productiveness  was  tributary  to  his  effectiveness  as  a 
preacher. 

Two  volumes  of  sermons  gather  up  his  homiletic 
products.'  Their  order  of  thought  is  lucid,  their  tone 
devout,  and  their  moral  and  reHgious  earnestness  secures 
for  them  an  element  of  forcefulncss  and  persuasiveness. 
The  themes  are  wide  ranging.  Many  of  them  touch  the 
problems  of  church  hfe,  some  specifically  the  work  of  mis- 
sions. Most  relate  themselves  to  the  reHgious  and  moral 
life  of  the  individual  and  are  sermons  of  edification  such 
as  one  might  hear  and  would  wish  to  hear  from  any  Chris- 
tian minister. 

^  "  Posthumous  Works,"  Vols.  I  and  II. 


THE  PREACHlxNG  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        385 

Bishop  Hopkins  of  Vermont  was  perhaps  the  most 
extreme  ecclesiastical  reactionist  and  political  conser- 
vative of  this  school.  In  the  most  active  period  of  his 
public  life  he  was  prominent,  and  offensively  so,  as  the 
friend  of  the  south  in  its  slavery  and  subsequent  secession 
agitations,  and  was  its  apologist  and  measurably  its 
defender.  He  was  a  vigorous  and  uncompromising 
controversialist,  never  more  at  home  than  in  the  thick 
of  battle.  In  early  hfe  he  had  entered  upon  a  business 
career,  and  subsequently  became  a  lawyer.  In  this  sphere 
he  had  developed  a  prodigious  activity  and  had  trained 
himself  in  practical  life  to  handle  men  and  to  bring  things 
to  pass.  This  business  and  professional  life,  in  connection 
with  the  agitations  of  his  time,  seemed  to  evoke  the  aggres- 
sive and  combative  tendencies  of  a  restlessly  irritable  mind. 
He  was  a  so-called  self-made  man  and  entered  the  ministry 
without  any  special  theological  training.  Like  many 
another  man  of  affairs  in  the  earher  and  in  the  later 
history  of  the  church,  he  illustrates  the  possibihties  for 
eminent  success  of  the  mature  and  practically  trained 
man  when  transferred  from  the  secular  to  the  sacred 
calling.  Without  the  training  of  the  schools  he  was  at 
short  notice  transferred  from  the  law  ofhce  to  the  rector- 
ship of  Trinity  Church,  New  York.  He  was  of  course  a 
man  of  unusual  native  gifts,  a  painter,  a  musician,  an 
architect,  a  poet,  a  writer  upon  a  great  variety  of  subjects, 
not  without  a  gift  for  theology,  a  natural  leader,  and  a 
forceful  preacher.  In  the  state  of  Vermont  and  in  the 
city  of  Burhngton,  where  for  twenty-seven  years  he  had 
charge  of  the  Episcopal  church,  he  left  behind  the  tradition 
of  a  skilful  polemist  and  controversiahst,  a  brilHant 
debater,  a  facile  extemporaneous  preacher  and  platform 
orator,  of  an  ingenious  and  extravagant  interpreter  of 
ecclesiastical  sjinbolism,  and  of  an  ardent  devotee  of  the 
dogmatic  principle  in  theology.  The  subjects  with  which 
he  grappled,  and  always  with  characteristic  confidence  and 


386  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

aggressive  eagerness,  were  numerous.  No  collection  of 
sermons  remains,  but  the  number  of  homiletic  monographs 
is  large  and  covers  a  wide  field  of  subjects  that  were  in 
agitation  in  his  day. 

Bishop  Doane  of  New  Jersey,  at  one  time  associated 
with  Bishop  Hobart  at  Trinity  Church,  and  subsequently 
one  of  PhiUips  Brooks'  predecessors  at  Trinity  Church, 
Boston,  was,  Hke  his  New  York  colleague,  active  in  the 
educational  interests  of  his  school.  He  was  at  one  time 
professor  of  Enghsh  Literature  in  the  Episcopal  College 
at  Hartford,  Conn.,  now  known  as  Trinity,  and  was  editor 
of  one  of  the  rehgious  journals  of  his  school.  He  founded 
the  first  girls'  college  connected  with  his  church  and  a 
boys'  school  which  developed  into  Burhngton  College, 
and  he  anticipated  the  subsequent  enterprise  that  has 
given  the  country  so  many  excellently  endowed  and 
equipped  preparatory  schools  for  young  men  and  women. 
He  was  a  poet  of  more  than  ordinary  gifts,  and  a  volume 
of  his  poems  contains  some  of  the  best -known  and  most 
cherished  hymns  that  are  found  in  all  church  hymnals. 
Like  most  of  his  school,  especially  in  the  early  period,  he 
was  a  controversialist.  By  his  gifts  as  a  preacher  he 
enriched  the  homiletic  standards  of  his  school,  as  by  his 
poetic  and  hturgical  gifts  he  enriched  its  worship.  There 
remains  a  volume  of  his  sermons  published  in  England 
and  dedicated  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  containing 
occasional  discourses,  all  but  one  of  which  were  preached 
in  this  country,  and  official  addresses  to  his  clergy.^ 
They  touch  important  church  questions,  especially  the 
missionary  interests  of  the  church,  and  include  themes 
that  are  essential  to  the  edification  of  the  individual 
Christian  life,  and  which,  although  abundantly  colored 
by  his  high  churchmanship,  are  well  adapted  to  this 
end. 

Dr.  DeKoven  of  Wisconsin,  founder  of  Racine  College, 

*  "  Sermons  on  Various  Occasions,  with  Three  Charges,"  1842. 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES       387 

prominent  in  the  west  in  general  high-church  propagan- 
dism,  and  especially,  like  Hobart  and  Doane  in  the  east,  in 
educational  movements,  prominent  also,  and  successfully 
so,  in  the  controversies  of  the  church  that  threatened 
schism,  was  among  the  most  gifted  and  versatile  of  those 
representatives  of  his  school  that  won  public  attention  a 
little  later.  As  a  master  of  assembhes,  who  in  this  respect 
held  the  leadership  of  his  school,  but  who  has  left  chiefly 
his  institutional  work  and  but  little  of  a  literar}'  character 
behind,  he  won  a  respectful  hearing  from  all  schools, 
despite  the  exaggerations  of  his  churchmanship,  and  held 
the  allegiance  of  his  kind  because  of  them. 

These  leaders,  and  others  that  might  be  classed  with 
them,  were  men  of  training  and  culture  according  to  the 
type  common  in  their  day  and  school,  and,  although 
not  equal  in  power  of  eloquence  to  many  in  the  rival  school, 
were  men  of  apologetic  skill  and  of  a  forcefulness  and  per- 
suasiveness of  speech  fully  adequate  to  the  demands  of 
their  propaganda. 

2.  A  more  moderate  estimate  of  institutional  Christian- 
ity is  found  in  "low"  Episcopacy.  The  term  suggests 
the  subordination  of  the  formal  to  the  material  aspects 
of  religion.  It  assumes  the  supremacy  of  what  is  inward, 
experimental,  and  real  in  the  Christian  hfe.  It  finds  no 
saving  significance  or  even  essential  value  in  external 
forms  and  ordinances  as  such.  They  are  not  productive 
sources  of  regenerate  life  but  only  agencies  that  are  useful 
in  its  promotion.  Their  ultimate  value  is  conditioned 
by  the  spiritual  attitude  of  their  subjects  with  respect 
to  them.  The  authority  of  the  church  is  not  found  pri- 
marily in  its  apostohc  order,  tior  the  validity  of  its  ministry 
in  apostohc  succession.  It  represents  the  subjective 
principle  in  a  church  that  is  strongly  committed  to  external 
ecclesiastical  order.  As  the  "evangehcal"  branch  of 
the  church  it  holds  supreme  attention  to  the  central 
realities  of  the  Gospel  of  Redemption,  and  in  this  allies 


388  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

itself  with  all  the  chief  Protestant  communions.  It 
lays  more  stress  upon  doctrine  than  upon  organization 
and  upon  teaching  than  upon  ritual.  As  expressive  of 
the  reahties  of  the  inner  Ufe  its  preaching  has  always 
borne  the  experimental  note.  As  the  utterance  of  devout 
piety  it  has  always  been  characterized  by  a  certain  effusive- 
ness of  sentiment  and  ardor  of  emotion.  In  its  allegiance 
to  Calvinistic  anthropology  it  has  laid  much  stress  upon 
the  doctrine  of  human  depravity,  has  made  prominent 
the  necessity  of  regeneration  and  of  conscious  consecration 
to  Christ,  and  has  exalted  the  life  of  personal  faith  that 
brings  the  soul  into  immediate  relation  with  Christ  and 
holds  it  in  perpetual  devotion  to  and  in  living  fellowship 
with  Him  as  Redeemer  and  Lord.  The  forces  that  produce 
and  foster  piety  are  the  great,  outstanding,  authoritatively 
given  truths  and  facts  of  redemptive  rehgion.  They  are 
incorporated  in  the  creeds  of  the  church,  and  they  are 
interpreted  by  its  ordinances  and  its  symbols,  but  they 
are  accepted  not  primarily  upon  the  basis  of  ecclesiastical 
authority,  but  partly  upon  the  ground  of  their  verification 
in  Christian  experience  and  partly  upon  the  basis  of 
Bibhcal  authority.  The  incarnation  and  the  atonement 
are  the  great  central  objective  reahties  with  which  the 
pulpit  of  the  evangeUcal  school  has  dealt.  In  its  Chris- 
tology  supreme  emphasis  has  in  general  been  laid  upon 
the  deity  of  Christ ;  and  the  significance  of  His  humanity, 
whether  with  respect  to  an  adequate  conception  of  His 
being,  His  character,  or  His  work,  has  sometimes  failed  of 
appropriate  recognition.  The  power  of  the  atonement 
is  largely  in  its  Godward  significance,  as  the  ground  of 
pardon  and  justification,  but  ultimately  in  its  persuasive 
power  in  winning  the  allegiance  of  the  human  heart. 
The  message  of  the  cross  is  its  central  message,  and  its 
pathos  and  passion  have  been  depicted  with  great  vividness 
of  imaginative  representation  and  with  great  power  of 
emotion.     Its  eschatology  has  been  based  upon  Calvinistic 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        389 

conceptions  of  God.  The  dark  reality  of  sin  has  been 
made  prominent,  and  the  preacher's  sense  of  the  moral 
peril  of  the  sinner  has  been  expressed  with  dramatic 
intensity.  In  line  with  the  emphasis  which  it  lays  upon 
the  subjective  experience  of  rehgion  it  finds  in  the  sacra- 
ments primarily  the  symbols  of  the  inner  appropriation 
of  redemption.  They  are  symbols  of  the  grace  within 
rather  than  of  the  grace  that  stands  for  us  and  may  be 
ours.  As  deaUng  with  the  great  reaHties  of  redemptive 
rehgion  that  touch  the  individual  hfe  and  in  hne  with  its 
Calvinism,  that  lays  supreme  accent  upon  individual 
regeneration  and  conversion,  the  preaching  of  low  Episco- 
pacy has  aimed  at  the  salvation  of  the  individual  soul  and 
has  therefore  cultivated  the  evangelistic  type  to  a  large 
extent.  It  has  even  allied  itself  with  the  preaching  of 
other  communions  in  promoting  revivals  of  rehgion,  and 
has  sought  to  develop  a  conscious  reUgious  experience 
in  all  those  who  enter  the  fellowship  of  the  church.  Its 
emotional  and  sentimental  quahty  has  secured  for  it  a 
distinctive  forcefuLness  and  persuasiveness,  but  in  intellec- 
tual and  ethical  virility  it  has  often  been  defective  and  has 
sometimes  degenerated  into  cant. 

Devoted  to  the  subjective  and  experimental  principle, 
it  has  still  held  firmly,  although  not  intemperately  or  irra- 
tionally, to  the  importance  for  Christianity  of  the  visible, 
historic  church.  It  has  never  ceased  to  lay  stress  especially 
upon  the  historic  continuity  of  the  church.  The  external 
unity  and  stabihty  of  church  life  are  necessary  in  order 
that  in  the  best  and  fullest  sense  the  church  may  become 
an  agency  for  promoting  the  interests  of  Christianity  as 
the  religion  of  redemptive  experience  and  hfe.  Even 
a  moderate  and  reasonable  churchman  like  Dean  Hodges 
of  the  Cambridge  Divinity  School  can  in  our  own  day 
venture  the  statement  that  "alone  of  all  the  Protestant 
communions,  the  Episcopal  church  represents  and  is 
the  original  society  which  Jesus  Christ  Himself  estabUshed 


390  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

in  this  world."  ^  It  is  the  only  Protestant  church  of  which 
this  can  be  affirmed.  And  this  is  not  a  mere  theory  that 
may  be  supported  by  probable  evidence,  but  is  an  incon- 
testable historic  fact. 

Now  it  must  be  conceded  that  if  this  claim  could  be 
vindicated  it  would  give  the  preacher  a  very  commanding 
position.  To  be  able  to  believe  that  Christ  personally 
supervised  the  organization  of  the  Christian  church  and 
that  one  serves  the  only  church  that  was  thus  instituted 
is  surely  a  condition  of  ministerial  power.  To  be  able 
to  beheve  it,  even  without  adequate  verification,  is  mani- 
festly of  great  practical  value  to  the  Episcopal  minister. 
This  faith  has  fostered  the  historic  spirit  in  church  Hfe. 
It  has  encouraged  the  belief  that  there  are  things  of  value 
that  are  "more  than  twenty-four  hours  old."  It  has 
nurtured  a  churchly  habit  of  mind,  whose  product  is 
institutional  loyalty  and  loving  devotion  to  those  committed 
to  one's  official  charge.  It  has  promoted  a  conservative 
habit,  which  discloses  itself  in  allegiance  to  church  authority, 
in  veneration  for  ancient  usage,  in  respect  for  established 
ordinances,  in  steadiness  of  mind  in  times  of  transition,  in 
sympathetic  interpretation  of  the  truth  of  historic  creeds, 
in  liturgical  culture  through  archaic  forms,  and  all  this 
has  availed  in  the  preaching  of  evangelical  Episcopacy. 
But  in  order  to  reahze  something  of  all  this  it  is  not  neces- 
sary for  the  preacher  to  accept  these  unverified  claims. 
It  is  not  necessary,  nor  is  it  possible,  to  beheve  that  Christ 
personally  estabhshed  any  visible  church  at  all.  There 
is  no  adequate  evidence  that  He  regarded  the  founding 
of  visible  institutions  as  a  part  of  His  mission.  One  may 
beheve  that  the  historic  church  was  self-evolved  from  the 
Pentecostal  forces  of  the  Christian  hfe,  that  in  the  processes 
of  its  development  it  naturally  took  various  forms,  some 
of  which  expressed  the  spirit  and  principles  of  Christianity 
less  fully  than  others,  so  that  a  return  to  the  earher  sim- 
'  " TheEpiscopal  Church,"  53. 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        391 

plicity  and  reality  became  necessary.     One  may  deny  that 

any  church  is  strictly  apostohc  in  the  formal  sense  and 

acknowledge   that   all    churches    that    are    organized    in 

the  Spirit  of  Christ  and  in  the  principles  of  His  rehgion 

may  be  apostohc  in  the  material  sense.     And  such  an 

one  may  beheve  in  the  historic  church  and  win  the  strength 

that  comes  from  an  assured  connection  with  some  of  the 

forms,  at  least,  of  its  early  Ufe.     The  autonomous  churches 

have  all  of  them  sought  to  get  back  into  touch  with  the 

apostohc  church.     "Behind  the  mountains  there  are  also 

people,"  and  they  have  kinship  with  many  who  from  the 

hither  side  have  scaled  the  heights  of  formal  ecclesiasticism 

and  who  have  gone  down  to  greet  and  join  their  kindred  on 

the  other  side.     They  have  laid  more  stress  upon  the  spirit 

than  upon  the  form  of   the  apostolic  church,  upon  the 

principles  the  church  incorporates  than  upon  the  modes 

of  their  manifestation.     But  in  so  far  as  they  have  ground 

for    beheving    that    they   perpetuate    approximately    the 

simple,  free  forms  of  the  early  church  they  have  found 

their  advantage   in   it.     All   Protestant   Christians   need 

more  respect  for  the  visible  institutes  of  the  church,  for 

its  historic  basis,  and  its  historic  forms.     We  may  dissent 

from  the  apostolicity  even  of  the  temperate  evangehcal 

churchman,  but  we  must  recognize  its  power  in  the  work 

of  the  preacher.     And  yet  it  is  not  the  objective,  but  the 

subjective,  principle  that  has  been  chieiiy  potent  in  the 

preaching  of  "  low  "  Episcopacy.    American,  Hke  Anghcan, 

evangeHcahsm  has  produced  and  trained  the  best  preachers 

of  the  church.      Many  who  subsequently  broke  with  it 

secured  from  it  their  earhest  and  choicest  nurture,  and 

they  have  carried  into  other  spheres  the  spirit  and  the 

power  of  these  early  associations.     This  was  true  in  an 

eminent    degree    of    Bishop    PhiUips    Brooks.     In   ever}' 

stage  of  his  career  we  see  the  hngering  influence.     It  was 

here  that  his  religious  hfe  developed,  and  it  was  this  that 

became  the  primal  inspiration  of  his  power.     In  the  early 


392  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

period  of  American  history  the  evangelical  school  had 
precedence,  and  for  its  zeal  and  piety  it  is  entitled  to  our 
gratitude.  The  names  of  its  prominent  men  in  official 
hfe  during  subsequent  years  have  become  household 
words  in  all  Protestant  communions.  To  recall  them  is 
to  recall  the  memories  of  other  days  in  many  and  diverse 
religious  circles.  They  were  men  of  not  less  abihty  and 
learning  than  their  opponents,  the  rival  school,  and  in 
convincing  and  persuasive  power  as  preachers  they  were 
their  superiors.  The  name  of  Bishop  Potter  of  Pennsyl- 
vania stands  for  intellectual  accompHshments,  statesman- 
like scope  of  vision,  executive  skill  and  force,  not  less 
than  persuasive  speech,  the  transmission  of  which  may 
perhaps  be  discovered  in  his  gifted  son,  the  present  senior 
Bishop  of  New  York  City.  Bishop  Mcllvaine  of  Ohio 
has  long  been  known  in  the  "dissenting"  schools  in  his 
stately  dignity,  his  persistent  industry,  his  piety,  his  patriot- 
ism, his  social  influence,  and  the  evangeHcal  and  Biblical 
tone  of  his  preaching.  Bishop  Bedell,  his  associate  and 
ultimate  successor  in  the  bishopric  of  Ohio,  was  long  ago 
discovered  even  by  strangers  in  his  admirable  work  en- 
titled "The  Pastor,"  which  discloses  not  only  the  devout 
and  practical  spirit  of  this  model  bishop  but  the  temper 
and  tone  of  the  ministers  of  the  "evangelical"  church 
of  his  day.  In  many  religious  circles  of  New  England 
not  connected  with  his  own  communion,  the  name  of  the 
gifted,  accomphshed,  broad-minded,  and  large-hearted 
Bishop  George  Burgess  was  wont  to  be  mentioned  a 
generation  ago,  as  the  writer  well  recalls,  in  terms  of  loving 
veneration,  and  in  the  state  of  Maine,  whose  first  Episcopal 
bishop  he  was,  among  a  population  wedded  to  the  ways 
of  the  autonomous  church,  he  has  left  the  tradition  of  a 
Christian  courtesy  and  kindliness,  ecclesiastical  generosity, 
a  literary  culture,  and  persuasive  pubhc  speech  that  are  an 
honor  to  his  school  and  his  church.  In  Massachusetts, 
the  centre  of  what  has  been  called  the  old  "established 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        393 

church"  of  New  England,  something  more  than  the  well- 
known  generosity  and  self-sacrifice,  spiritual  and  material, 
and  the  dogged  English  pluck  and  persistence  with  which 
he  devoted  himself  to  the  interests  of  his  church,  must 
account  for  the  esteem  and  confidence  in  which  Bishop 
Eastburn  was  regarded  in  the  ecclesiastical  community. 
They  are  found  also  in  the  touching  points  he  presented 
to  the  entire  evangelical  church  and  in  the  promise  in 
him  of  larger  things  than  were  found  in  the  school  in  which 
he  had  been  nurtured.  Perhaps  his  Presbyterian  nurture 
and  his  transient  affiliation  with  Congregationahsm  may 
have  disclosed  their  results  in  the  preintimations  of  a 
broader  churchmanship  which  emerged  later  on  in  the 
ecclesiastical  career  of  Bishop  Clark  of  Rhode  Island  and 
may  explain  the  sentiment  of  comradeship  with  which 
progressive  "dissenting"  ministers  have  regarded  him. 
It  was  in  the  expansion  of  men  of  this  type  that  broad 
churchmanship  found  its  source. 

The  great  preacher  of  this  school,  if  not  of  the  entire 
church  of  his  day,  was  Dr.  Alexander  H.  Vinton.  He  was 
educated  for  the  medical  profession,  and  in  the  practice 
of  it  spent  the  first  three  years  of  his  public  life  in  Pomfret, 
Conn.,  his  native  town.  His  methodical  habit  of  mind  and 
his  caution  and  reverence  for  facts  may  disclose  the  re- 
sults of  his  scientific  training,  but  he  brought  to  the  ministry, 
which  he  entered  in  the  maturity  of  his  powers,  a  dis- 
tinctively theological  mind  and  a  rhetorical  and  oratorical 
equipment  that  gave  him  commanding  influence  in  the 
cities  of  Boston,  Philadelphia,  and  New  York,  where  he 
spent  his  ministerial  life.  He  will  always  be  known  as 
the  boyhood  pastor  of  Phillips  Brooks.  As  rector  of 
St.  Paul's,  Boston,  he  had  in  charge  the  shaping  of  that 
great  character  from  the  age  of  six  years  until  entrance  upon 
college  life,  and  as  rector  of  Holy  Trinity,  Philadelphia,  he 
was  also  Brooks'  predecessor.  They  were  lifelong  friends, 
and  the  permanent  influence  of  the  elder  over  the  younger 


394  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

man  was  most  marked  and  most  salutary.  In  theology 
he  was  a  moderate  Calvinist,  after  the  type  of  his  school 
and  day,  and  the  two  great  countertruths  of  his  preaching 
were  the  atonement,  whose  objective  import  was  prominent 
in  his  teaching  and  conversion,  upon  the  conscious  assur- 
ance of  which  in  the  subject  he  placed  proportionate 
emphasis.  If  in  later  years  the  young  disciple  drifted 
from  the  teaching  of  his  master,  he  could  still  testify^ 
that  Dr.  Vinton  never  preached  an  irrational  theology.  In 
his  hands  it  was  always  made  "respectable,"  even  though 
it  might  not  always  be  accepted.  His  mind  was  of  the 
logical  order  and  he  handled  skilfully  the  strong  and 
closely  related  features  of  his  subject.  But  he  was  not 
lacking  in  the  ardor  and  the  imaginative  touch  of  the  true 
preacher.  His  preaching  was  weighty  in  thought  and 
forceful  in  cumulative  impression.  He  was  a  careful, 
cautious,  consistent  thinker,  distrustful  of  theological 
innovations,  but  not  of  an  intolerant  spirit,  and  in  his  wise 
conservatism  a  good  counterweight  against  all  rashness 
and  crudeness.  Bishop  Brooks  regarded  him  as  "the 
great  Presbyter  of  the  church,"  ^  whose  introduction  to 
the  bishopric  "would  have  been  a  loss  and  not  a  gain," 
for  "it  would  have  separated  him  from  the  pulpit  where 
he  belonged."  Two  volumes  of  sermons  only  partially 
vindicate  the  estimate,  for  they  inadequately  perpetuate 
the  impressive  personahty  of  the  man.  Of  his  theological 
and  Biblical  learning  he  availed  himself  in  his  mid-week 
lectures,  which  were  fruitful  in  the  homes  of  his  people 
and  sources  of  edification  to  his  congregation  and  furnished 
an  example  of  pastoral  wisdom  which  Pliilhps  Brooks 
followed  later  on  as  rector  of  Trinity  Church.  Dr. 
Vinton  has  been  spoken  of  as  "Websterian"  in  mould. 
His  voice  was  that  of  an  orator  and  answered  to  a  com- 
manding physical  personahty.  In  Boston,  notable  in 
his  day  for  exceptionally   brilliant  public    speakers,  he 

»  "  Life  of  Phillips  Brooks,"  Vol.  U,  306. 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        395 

was  a  prominent  figure,  and  was  much  sought  for  the 
pulpit  and  the  platform  in  the  advocacy  of  many  forms 
of  pubhc  philanthropy. 

A  still  more  pronounced  and  aggressive  low  churchman, 
in  even  closer  touch  with  all  evangehcal  churches,  and 
more  widely  known  beyond  his  own  communion,  was  Dr. 
Stephen  H.  Tyng,  for  thirty  years  rector  of  St.  George's 
Church,  New  York.  He  was  a  man  who  had  evidently 
been  led  in  the  experiences  of  his  own  Christian  Hfe  to 
cherish  a  genuine  spiritual  freedom,  and  the  freedom  of 
the  general  ecclesiastical  atmosphere  of  Massachusetts,  the 
state  of  his  nativity  and  of  his  early  nurture,  was  doubt- 
less tributary  to  its  development.  He  was  enthusiastically 
devoted  to  all  questions  of  pubhc  morahty  and  worked 
in  their  interest  beyond  ecclesiastical  Unes,  being  promi- 
nent in  the  anti-slavery  agitation  and  in  the  temperance 
reform.  He  freely  supported  the  voluntary  principle  in 
interdenominational,  Christian,  and  philanthropic  enter- 
prises and  was  in  particular  a  strong  and  influential 
advocate  of  the  Sunday-school  movement.  Of  an  "au- 
thority that  opposes  freedom"  he  was  mtolerant,  akhough 
as  a  church  rector  he  was,  in  the  language  of  Bishop 
Bedell  in  his  memorial  discourse,  "a  judicious  autocrat." 
He  cordially  approved  of  the  revival  movements  that  were 
common  in  the  church  hfe  of  the  nonhturgical  churches 
of  his  day,  and  approved  of  the  course  of  Philhps  Brooks 
in  his  support  of  Mr.  Moody's  revival  work  in  Boston, 
and,  in  vindication  of  his  approbation,  declared  that  he 
"always  united  with  those  faithful  brethren"  in  revival 
effort  because  he  beheved  them  to  be  "  doing  God's  work."  ^ 
He  had  all  the  gifts,  appointments,  and  training  of  an 
extraordinary  preacher,  and  especially  of  an  extraordi- 
nary pastor.  His  call  to  the  Christian  ministry  was  excep- 
tionally distinct,  and  his  consciousness  of  vocation  was 
extraordinarily  clear  and  strong.    Nurtured  in  the  literary 

'  Ibid.,  149. 


396  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

atmosphere  of  Boston  and  educated  at  Harvard  College, 
he  carried  into  his  work  the  intellectual  outfit  of  the 
preacher.  Connected  with  a  family  engaged  in  mercan- 
tile pursuits  and  with  a  personal  experience  of  two  years 
in  commercial  hfe,  he  was  early  trained  into  business 
habits  that  proved  of  ultimate  advantage  in  ordering 
the  affairs  of  his  church  and  parish.  By  the  ardor  of 
his  personal  piety  and  by  his  association  as  student- 
pupil  in  theology  with  Bishop  Griswold,  he  was,  from  the 
first,  strongly  committed  to  evangelicaHsm,  and  to  it  he 
held  tenaciously  through  all  the  changes  in  his  church 
which  he  lived  to  behold.  He  was  a  man  of  refinement 
and  culture,  and  bore  in  his  countenance  the  marks  of 
a  Christian  gentleman.  He  was  a  man  of  dehcate  spiritual 
susceptibihties  and  impulses,  but  also  of  moral  aggressive- 
ness as  a  church  or  rather  party  leader,  and  a  little  uncom- 
promising in  his  defence  of  his  principles.  His  convicdons 
were  intense,  his  tone  positive,  his  method  polemical, 
and  he  lacked  the  breadth  requisite  for  a  comprehensive 
leadership.  He  was  the  peer  of  Dr.  Vinton  in  his  gifts 
as  a  preacher,  although  different  in  type  and  in  general 
more  popular.  His  method  of  preaching  had  the  formal 
clearness  of  outline  that  was  in  harmony  with  the  homiletic 
training  of  his  day,  and  his  style  of  speech,  although  that 
of  a  modest  and  retiring  gentleman,  had  the  forcefulness 
of  a  personal  and  vocal  intensity  that  drove  the  truth 
home.  The  volume  of  discourses  entitled  "The  Israel 
of  God"  ^  furnishes  an  excellent  illustration  of  his  preach- 
ing. Even  a  casual  observation  of  his  themes  and  texts 
discloses  not  only  its  evangehcal  but  its  evangehstic  quaHty, 
and  closer  examination  intensifies  the  impression.  The 
Httle  monograph  endtled  "Fellowship  with  Christ,"^ 
designed  for  young  converts,  and  especially  as  a  guide 
to  those  who  are  about  to  enter  the  fellowship  of  the  church 

'  "  A  Series  of  Practical  Sermons,"  1845. 
'  "  A  Guide  to  the  Sacraments,"  1854. 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        397 

and  to  receive  its  sacraments,  and  is  of  value  to  all  such  in 
our  own  day,  discloses  still  more  fully  the  devout  and 
earnest  evangehcaUsm  of  his  spirit. 

3.  The  more  broadly  liberal  and  pronouncedly  modern 
school  of  American  Episcopacy  has  become  widely  known 
in  all  the  churches  of  the  country,  especially  through  the 
pubhc  career  of  its  great  representative,  Phillips  Brooiis. 
It  stands  for  a  profoundly  interesting  movement  in 
American  church  Ufe,  whose  modifying  influence  has 
been  powerful  within  its  own  ecclesiastical  bounds  and  is 
not  inconsiderable  outside  of  them.  But  it  must  not 
detain  us  long.  The  characteristic  features  of  its  preach- 
ing are  readily  suggested  by  the  term  that  interprets 
its  theological  and  ecclesiastical  position.  Its  breadth  is 
its  distinguishing  note.  Its  message  is  the  great  message 
of  the  kingdom  of  redemption,  and  the  strength  of  its 
presentation  is  conditioned  by  the  freedom  and  fulness 
of  its  subjective  appropriation  in  the  soul  of  the  preacher. 
It  is  not  possible  to  hnger  with  its  theological  and  ecclesi- 
astical phenomena.     Only  a  few  can  be  touched. 

Its  conception  of  the  nature  and  character  of  God  as 
the  Father  and  Redeemer  of  all  mankind  is  large  and 
generous  and  genuinely  Christian.  It  therefore  yields 
a  type  of  theology  that  is  wide  ranging  in  its  impHcations 
and  that  can  be  preached  with  great  breadth  and  fulness 
of  sympathy  and  with  great  wealth  of  persuasiveness. 
This  conception  and  representation  of  God's  wide-reaching 
and  comprehensively  gracious  relation  with  all  men  who 
are  called  to  be  the  servant  sons  of  His  heavenly  kingdom 
and  the  heirs  of  His  heavenly  inheritance,  appeals  to  what 
is  noblest,  most  generous,  and  most  human  in  our  natures. 

Its  broad  estimate  of  God's  self-revelation,  as  reaching 
indeed  its  hitherto  highest  objective  form  in  the  historic 
Christ,  but  as  not  wholly  restricted  to  ages  past,  as  not 
Hmited  to  an  elect  race,  nor  to  elect  individual  men,  nor 
exclusively  to  the  Great  Revealer  Himself,  but  as  still  and 


398  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

ever  real  and  effective  in  the  souls  and  lives  of  all  men 
who  are  responsive  to  His  ever  present  Spirit,  this  estimate 
furnishes  a  basis  of  appeal  to  all  those  strivings  of  the 
human  spirit  in  which  it  seeks  to  come  into  immediate, 
inward  communion  with  God  or  to  all  those  possibihties 
even  of  an  unstriving  soul  that  may  be  awakened  into 
reahzation  of  the  immediate,  ever  present  reahty  of  God 
in  this  world  and  in  the  race  which  He  has  redeemed. 

Its  exalted  estimate  of  the  ideal  manhood  of  men  as 
revealed  in  Christ  furnishes  a  basis  for  hope  and  confidence 
in  the  responsiveness  of  their  souls  to  the  pleadings  of 
God's  grace  and  in  their  ultimate  salvabihty  and  conditions 
an  optimistic  message  that  gives  strength  and  cheer  to 
the  heart  of  the  preacher. 

Its  rich  and  fruitful  conception  of  the  divine  humanity 
of  Jesus,  that  brings  Him  near  to  men  in  His  ideal  and 
sinless  completeness  as  their  Saviour  and  Lord,  lends 
itself  to  a  message  of  His  person  that  is  most  humanly 
and  persuasively  real.  Its  broad  interpretation  of  the 
divine  sacrifice  of  Jesus,  as  revealing  the  heart  of  God,  as 
disclosing  the  principle  of  His  moral  government,  as  inter- 
preting the  meaning  of  all  true  human  Hfe,  and  as  test- 
ing all  true  human  character,  cannot  fail  to  yield  a  message 
that  must  be  presented  with  great  confidence  as  fumishuig 
a  moral  motive  potent  to  win  men  into  practical  sympathy 
with  and  into  moral  allegiance  to  His  priestly  life.  The 
comprehensive  ecclesiasticism  that  conceives  the  church 
as  including  ideally  all  the  redeemed  children  of  God, 
as  being  the  true  home  of  all  mankind  for  which  Jesus 
lived  and  died,  stands  behind  a  message  that  is  most 
urgent  in  its  assurance  that  all  men  have  their  only  proper 
belonging  in  the  kingdom  of  God's  grace,  and  that  as  His 
children  and  subjects  they  come  to  their  own  only  in 
coming  into  the  fellowship  of  His  church. 

The  stress  that  is  laid  upon  the  broad  objective  signifi- 
cance of  the  sacraments  as  the  symbohc  pledges  of  the  great 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        399 

outstanding  historic  facts  of  Christ's  redemptive  work, 
by  virtue  of  which  they  belong  in  Christian  right  to  all 
who,  as  their  proper  subjects,  freely  accept  and  appro- 
priate their  redemptive  significance,  and  to  all  for  whose 
education  into  the  knowledge  of  Christ's  redemption 
suitable  provision  has  been  made,  must  furnish  strong 
appeal  to  a  sense  of  Christian  privilege  and  should 
foster  a  larger  knowledge  of  the  educative  value  of  re- 
ligious symboUsm  that  could  not  fail  to  be  efficacious  in 
the  upbuilding  of  Christian  character. 

Its  hberal  estimate  of  the  practical  relation  of  the  forces 
of  redemptive  rehgion  to  all  forms,  phases,  and  spheres 
of  human  life  has  secured  for  the  preaching  of  broad 
Episcopacy  an  ethical  comprehensiveness  that  is  unsur- 
passed and  that  has  exerted  a  salutary  influence  not  only 
upon  this  school,  but  upon  all  other  ecclesiastical  com- 
munions. In  broadening  the  ethical  scope  of  the 
Christian  pulpit,  the  preachers  of  this  school  have  won 
a  commanding  position. 

The  subjective  principle  in  religion  is  more  fully  real- 
ized by  this  than  by  any  other  branch  of  the  church. 
And  yet  it  holds  with  firmness  to  the  historic  continuity 
of  the  Adsible  church  and  thus  legitimates  its  right  to  a  place 
in  organized  Episcopacy.  Even  the  "  Giant  Great  Heart" 
of  the  broad  school,  whose  church  was  ideahzed  humanity, 
who  accepted  Episcopal  government  not  as  a  matter  of 
historic  tradition  or  of  apostohc  authority,  but  as  a  mat- 
ter of  ecclesiastical  effectiveness  and  orderliness,  even  he, 
stout  indi\dduaHst  though  he  was,  increasingly  subordinated 
liberty  with  respect  to  the  church  to  service  in  subjection 
to  it,  and,  as  bishop,  near  the  close  of  his  life,  he  might 
sometimes  humorously  "pity"  the  subjects  of  his  own 
episcopal  authority,  but  rigidly,  like  a  "judicious  autocrat," 
demanded  submission  to  it.^ 

We  shall  not  be  able  to  do  justice  even  to  the  most 

»  "Life  of  Phillips  Brooks,"  Vol.  II,  887. 


400  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

prominent  of  the  many  gifted  preachers  of  this  school, 
who,  in  breadth  of  intelhgence,  cathohcity  of  spirit, 
wealth  of  culture,  and  grace  or  force  of  speech,  hold  easily 
the  leadership  in  the  pulpit  of  the  church.  Its  prince,  of 
course,  was  Phillips  Brooks,^  and  he  in  fact  surpassed 
all  other  preachers  of  American  Episcopacy  in  its  entire 
history. 

Dr.  Muhlenberg  of  Pennsylvania,  subsequently  of  New 
York,  although  in  a  party  sense  not  classed  as  a  broad 
churchman,  was  prominent  in  movements  with  which 
this  school  has  been  allied  and  was  devoted  to  interests 
for  many  of  which  it  has  contended.  By  his  gifts  and 
accomphshments,  by  the  breadth  of  his  sympathies, 
and  by  his  genius  for  leadership,  he  was  admirably  fitted 
to  the  task  of  broadening  and  unifying  the  entire  church, 
in  which  he  was  ultimately  measurably  successful,  and  to 
which  the  broad  church  has  in  various  ways  contributed. 
Dr.  Muhlenberg's  efforts  were  all  tributary  to  the  enrich- 
ment of  the  hfe  of  the  church  and  to  the  elevation  of  its 
homiletical  and  hturgical  standards. 

Dr.  Edward  A.  Washburn,  native  of  Boston,  bred  in 
CongTegationaUsm,  graduate  of  Harvard,  product  of  the 
best  culture,  ecclesiastical  and  academic,  that  New 
England  could  give,  was  the  scholar  and  thinker  of  this 
school  and  for  the  more  distinctively  intellectual  class 
its  most  influential  preacher.  A  philosophical  church- 
man, as  he  called  himself,  he  was  as  of  necessity  a  broad 
churchman,  and  by  his  intellectual  vigor  and  persuasive- 
ness was  a  strong  defender  and  a  wide-ranging  advocate 
of  this  type  of  churchmanship. 

Bishop  Frederick  D.  Huntington  was  by  his  early 
associations  and  career  precommitted  to  theological 
and  ecclesiastical  cathohcity.  Transplanted  from  Unita- 
rianism,  of  which  he  was  only  a  moderate  adherent,  and 
from  the  atmosphere  of  Harvard,  where  he  was  college 

^  See  "  Representative  Modern  Preachers,"  Ch.  V. 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        401 

preacher  and  professor  of  Christian  ethics,  he  carried 
with  him  into  the  Episcopal  church  the  best  that  Unita- 
rianism  can  do  for  any  man.  He  carried  the  principle 
and  the  mental  habit  of  theological  independence  and  of 
tolerance  for  all  schools  of  theological  tliinkers.  He 
carried  also  that  which  Unitarianism  has  seemed  unable 
adequately  to  promote— a  vigorous  and  aggressive  evangeli- 
cal spirit.  As  a  preacher  he  was  notable  for  the  breadth 
and  fertilitv  of  his  thought,  for  the  affluence  and  copious- 
ness of  his  Hterarv  style,  and  for  his  moral  and  religious 
helpfulness.  In  all  Christian  circles  he  has  become  known 
especially  through  his  two  volumes  of  sermons,  "  Christian 
Believing  and  Living  "  '  and  "  Sermons  for  the  People," ' 
which  have  been  before  the  public  for  many  years,  and  he 
is  known  less  widely,  and  chiefly  in  his  own  communion, 
in  other  products  not  less  significant  of  later  years. 

Dr.  David  H.  Greer,  for  seventeen  years  rector  of  St. 
Bartholomew's  and  now  bishop  coadjutor  with  Bishop 
Potter  of  New  York  City,  is  regarded  by  many  as,  after 
PhilHps  Brooks,  the  most  effective  popular  preacher  in 
the  church.  A  Southerner  by  birth,  nurture,  and  educa- 
tion, one  naturally  looks  for  and  seems  to  find  in  his 
rhetorical  and  oratorical  equipment  the  southerner's 
preaching  gifts.  His  work  at  St.  Bartholomew's  is  a 
conspicuous  wimess  to  the  success  of  an  industrious 
and  skilful  leadership  in  practical  administration  and  not 
the  less,  despite  most  arduous  executive  tasks,  to  a  con- 
tinuous and  undiminished  pulpit  productiveness. 

"The  Preacher  and  his  Place,"  Yale  Lyman  Beecher 
Lectures  for  the  year  1895,  is  of  value  for  its  broad  estimate 
of  the  preacher's  function,  its  hberal  interpretation  of  his 
proper  attitude  with  respect  to  the  theological  s}mibols 
of  the  church,  for  its  cathoUcity  of  spirit,  and  for  its  con- 
tribution to  the  preacher's  knowledge  of  comprehensive 
and  effective  church  leadership. 

1 1860.  '  1869. 


402  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

Dr.  William  S.  Rainsford,  for  twenty-five  years  rector 
of  St.  George's,  New  York,  has  been,  literally  and  meta- 
phorically, one  of  the  most  striking  figures  in  the  church. 
Irish  by  birth  and  English  by  education,  he  has  done  full 
justice  to  the  fiery  enthusiasm  and  the  stalwart  indepen- 
dence that  may  be  expected  from  such  sources.  As  a 
preacher  he  is  one  of  the  manhest  and  most  fearless  of 
men.  Not  overdehcate  in  fibre,  nor  overrefined  in  culture, 
never  ovemice,  and  often  rough  in  speech,  never  "picking 
his  words  in  a  gale  of  wind,"  offhand  in  method,  direct 
in  appeal,  fertile  in  conception,  picturesque  in  illustration, 
of  passionate  emotion,  of  stentorian  voice,  a  natural  orator, 
a  massive  personaHty  all  round,  he  has  made  a  powerful 
impression  upon  his  generation  which  will  not  pass  with 
his  too  early  withdrawal  from  the  field  of  conflict.  Young 
men,  especially  in  student  and  in  commercial  and  indus- 
trial hfe,  will  not  readily  forget  his  brave,  ringing  words. 
"A  Preacher's  Story  of  his  Work,"  characteristically 
outspoken,  unconventional,  and  intense,  is  an  extraor- 
dinarily interesting  portraiture  of  his  professional 
life,  duly  criticised  for  its  unecclesiastical  hberaUty,  but 
worthily  appreciated  for  its  sincerity  and  reaUty.  "Ser- 
mons preached  in  St.  George's"  in  their  suggestion  of 
mental  and  moral  strength,  their  emotional  intensity, 
their  freedom  and  facihty,  their  pithy  and  pungent  diction, 
reveal  the  sources  of  his  power  even  to  those  who  are  not 
famihar  with  his  preaching,  and  those  who  know  him  seem 
to  catch  the  very  tones  of  his  voice  and  to  behold  the 
stalwart  personality  emergent  from  his  words. 

Dr.  Wilham  R.  Huntington,  whose  undiminished  ac- 
ceptableness  as  a  preacher  in  the  arduous  and  varied 
tasks  of  the  rectorship  of  Grace  Church,  New  York,  for 
more  than  twenty-three  years,  attests  his  intellectual 
fertility  and  his  power  to  hold  the  moral  and  spiritual 
allegiance  of  men,  may  justly  be  characterized  as  the  most 
variously  accomplished  preacher  of  his  church.    He  has 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES       403 

written  copiously  upon  a  variety  of  subjects,  —  theologi- 
cal, ecclesiastical,  and  liturgical,  —  and  all  his  products  dis- 
close the  predominance  of  aesthetic  culture.  His  mind  is 
poetic  in  quahty  and  expresses  itself  not  only  in  his  poems, 
of  which  he  has  pubhshed  a  volume,  but  in  his  discourses. 
Their  graceful  hterary  style  and  the  refined  elocutionary 
form  in  which  they  are  uttered  disclose  the  best  sources 
of  academic  training,  and  the  fibre  of  their  substance 
and  their  elevated  and  sympathetic  tone  disclose  the 
dominance  of  the  rehgious  and  ethical  spirit. 

Within  the  last  fort>-  years  American  Episcopacy  has 
undergone  great  changes  and  has  made  rapid  strides. 
Its  advance  has  been  along  practical  Unes.  Its  educa- 
tional institutions  have  been  multiphed,  enlarged,  and 
enriched,  and  its  educational  interests  have  been  made 
tributary  to  the  practical  power  of  the  church.  Its  church 
life  has  expanded,  its  missionary  activity  has  been  in- 
tensified, and  no  body  of  churches  is  richer  in  philanthropic 
institutions.  More  than  three-fourths  of  its  churches 
are  free,  and  its  efforts  to  reach  the  unblessed  classes  are 
hardly  surpassed  by  those  churches  that  have  found 
in  such  efforts  their  historic  vocation.  Its  different 
schools  have  come  into  closer  touch.  The  lines  that 
separated  them  have  become  partially  effaced.  In  all 
branches  worship  has  been  enriched,  its  preaching  ap- 
proximates a  common  type,  and  every^vhere  it  is  the 
ethical  note  that  is  predominant.  In  the  development 
of  its  ecclesiastical  comprehensiveness,  by  which  it  has 
been  demonstrated  that  divergent  *  schools  of  thought 
may  be  tolerated  and  may  work  harmoniously  within  the 
same  organization,  it  has  attained  to  a  fuller  conscious- 
ness of  unity.  This  increasing  consciousness  of  oneness 
of  Hfe,  those  hturgical  enrichments  that  have  interpreted 
an  increasing  sense  of  want  in  the  nonhturgical  commun- 
ions, its  demonstrated  power  to  reach  the  common, 
practical  life  of  men,  the  change  of  diocesan  boundaries 


404  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

which  are  no  longer  limited  by  state  lines,  a  change  by 
which  different  sections  of  the  church  have  been  brought 
into  closer  contact,  and  its  increasing  consciousness  of 
historic  Ufe,  —  all  these  things  have  fostered  an  aspiration 
to  become  the  national  church  of  this  country,  and  a 
centre  about  which  all  other  churches  may  rally.  Whether 
this  aspiration  will  ever  be  reahzed  is  another  question. 
Possibly  other  communions  that  have  carried  a  smaller 
ecclesiastical  cargo  and  have  less  to  throw  overboard 
may  present  a  broader  basis  for  union  and  may  have  a 
more  hopeful  outlook.  But  whatever  the  future  may  have 
in  store,  it  is  certain  that  the  spirit  of  modern  American 
Episcopacy  has  greatly  broadened,  has  become  more 
Christian  and  more  patriotic  and  more  practical,  and  that 
this  has  had  a  powerful  influence  in  broadening  and  en- 
riching its  pulpit. 

vi.  I.  The  chief  contribution  of  Methodism  to  American 
preaching  is  in  the  realm  of  moral  and  religious  feeling. 
Its  distinguishing  feature  is  the  ardor  of  its  piety  and 
its  "enthusiasm  of  humanity."  Its  message  has  always 
been  one  of  passionate  intensity.  No  distinctively  ecclesi- 
astical influence  upon  the  emotional  effectiveness  of  the 
pulpit  has  surpassed  it.  To  the  evangeUcal  tone  and 
the  evangehstic  aim  in  preaching  it  has  always  been  true, 
and  in  the  sphere  of  religious  conquest  it  has  taken  the 
place  of  supremacy  among  all  our  Protestant  commun- 
ions. It  is  the  dominance  of  its  experimental  principle 
that  has  secured  for  it  an  almost  unexampled  forcefulness. 
It  originated  in  a  revolt  of  the  heart  against  a  dead 
orthodoxy  and  a  soulless  ecclesiastical  formahsm.  Its 
founder,  although  a  man  of  large  intellectual  endowment 
and  of  thorough  intellectual  equipment,  was  essentially  a 
mystic  of  the  practical  type.  To  his  rehgious  develop- 
ment the  writings  and  the  personal  influence  of  prominent 
mystics  in  different  branches  of  the  church  were  tributary. 
If  the  conditions  of  thought  had  been  favorable  and  he 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        405 

had  devoted  himself  to  the  task,  he  perhaps  might  have 
made  a  new  and  valuable  contribution  to  theology.     But 
he  did  not.     He  onlv  modified,  bettered,  and  consecrated 
a  contribution  that 'had  already  been  made.     But  what 
he  left  was  doubtless  a  richer  and  a  more  permanent 
gift    to   the    world.     He    impressed    upon    his   followers 
a  strength  and   productiveness  of   rehgious  feehng   that 
has  been  dominant  in  their  personal  and  associate  activities 
to  this  day.     Its  subjective  principle  takes  the  form  of 
the  witness  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  individual  behever 
and  in  the  community  of  behevers.     Immediateness  of 
relation  with  the  source  of  all  inspiration  and  spmtual 
power,    instantaneous    conversion    and    justification    and 
full    assurance  of    personal    salvation,  are    characteristic 
features    in    the    development    of    this    principle.     The 
humblest  as  well  as  the  most  exaked,  the  most  ignorant 
as  well  as  the  most  learned,  may  be  subjects  of  the  witness- 
ing Spirit.     From  the  rehgious  point  of  view,  therefore, 
Methodism  is  a  great  spiritual  democracy  after  the  tone 
if  not  the  pattern  of   the  early  church,  and    there  are 
incorporated  in  its  fundamental  principle  many  features 
of  a  theology  that  may  be  called  modem,  but  it  emerges 
in    experimental    rather   than   in    reflective    or   scientific 
form.     Methodism  has  within  it  vast  possibihties  of  a 
newly  developed  theology  of  experience  that  should  aUgn 
it  with  what  is  best  in  the  theologic  thought  of  our  day.    _ 
It  is  the  necessity  of  its  fundamental  principle  that  it 
should  be  preeminently  a  witnessing  church.     For  the 
Spirit  that  bears  witness  with  our  spirit  that  we  are  the 
children  of   God,  that  we   are   redeemed  from  sin,  and 
have  entered   the  hfe  of  an  assured   salvation,  and  are 
heirs  of  a  heavenly  inheritance  must  become  a  witness- 
producing  power  in  and  for  the  church.     It  is  the  impulse, 
the  privilege,  and  not  less  the  duty,  of  the  entire  brother- 
hood and  sisterhood  to  give  free  and  full  expression  to 
the  reaUties  of  the  inner  hfe  and  thus  to  contribute  to 


4o6  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

the  treasures  of  Christian  experience  that  may  inspire 
and  edify  the  church.  In  the  reUgious  sphere  the  laity 
exercise  a  freedom  that  is  not  surpassed  by  that  of  any 
other  Protestant  communion.  It  is  a  freedom  that  is 
out  of  proportion,  and  one  might  say  out  of  harmony, 
with  that  restricted  ecclesiastical  freedom  that  has  been 
somewhat  reluctantly  conceded  to  them.  It  was  the 
free,  prophetic  spirit  of  Wesley's  mother  that  appealed 
to  a  Hke  spirit  within  him  and  withheld  his  hand  when 
he  would  have  imposed  ecclesiastical  conditions  to  the 
witness  of  the  Spirit  in  the  inspired  utterance  of  the  lay- 
man Thomas  Maxfield.  "Take  care  what  you  do," 
said  this  inspired  saint,  "with  respect  to  that  young  man, 
for  he  is  as  surely  called  of  God  to  preach  as  you  are." 
It  was  also  the  inspired  utterance  of  a  woman  that  bore 
witness  against  the  degeneracy  of  religious  hfe  in  the 
early  history  of  American  Methodism  and  recalled  it  to 
better  ways.  The  lay  preaching  of  the  church,  that  has 
been  so  largely  tributary  to  its  rapid  advance,  is  an  expres- 
sion of  this  spiritual  freedom,  and  it  is  possible  that  after 
all  the  laity  of  the  Methodist  church  may  exert  a  spiritual 
influence  which  no  enlargement  of  their  ecclesiastical 
power  could  augment. 

It  is  in  hne  with  this  subjective  principle  that  supreme 
accent  should  be  placed  upon  the  inward  call  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  to  the  official  ministry  of  the  church.  It  was  to 
this  that  its  founder  attached  supreme  importance,  trained 
although  he  had  been  as  a  high  churchman,  and  "judi- 
cious autocrat"  ecclesiastically  though  he  became  in 
his  own  communion.  Above  the  call  of  the  church  and 
above  its  consecration  he  placed  the  inward,  immediate, 
divine  call.  So  potent  is  this  inward,  spiritual  call  that 
Methodism  tends  somewhat  to  minimize  the  call  of  God 
through  a  man's  nature  and  seems  to  lay  more  stress 
upon  the  training  of  meagre  gifts  than  upon  an  original 
endowment  with  larger  gifts.    All  the  complex  factors 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES       407 

that  should  enter  into  a  comprehensive  estimate  of  the 
vahditv  of  a  minister's  call  to  the  service  of  the  church 
must  find  their  centre  in  the  direct  and  distinct  call  of 
the  Holy  Spirit.  The  gifts  of  common  grace  are  not 
enough,  not  enough  the  gifts  of  nature,  original  or  acquired, 
nor  the  guidance  of  Providence,  nor  the  desire  to  make 
the  most  and  best  of  one's  personal  life  or  to  devote  one's 
self  to  the  interests  of  one's  fellow-men.^  That  these 
factors  may  properly  be  estimated  as  essential  to  the  call, 
there  must  be  added  that  inward  constraint  and  force 
of  conviction  that  are  the  voice  of  the  Spirit  of  God. 
Otherwise  no  man  is  sanctioned  in  entering  the  ministr}-. 
Mr.  Spurgeon  was  accustomed  to  say  to  his  students, 
"Don't  enter  the  ministr}^,  if  you  can  help  it."  The 
utterance  contained  a  good  indorsement  of  the  Methodist 
conception  of  a  ministerial  call. 

It  is  a  necessity  of  the  specific  forms  which  its  experi- 
mental principle'  assumes  that  the  Methodist  church 
should  be  by  preeminence  a  revival  church.  As  such  it 
originated  and  it  has  never  lost  this  characteristic  mark. 
More  fully  than  any  other  Protestant  church  is  it  com- 
mitted to'  the  evangehstic  t}^e  of  preaching.  Because 
evangehstic  substance  is  of  supreme  importance,  those 
great  truths  and  facts  of  redemptive  rehgion  that  take 
hold  of  the  heart  and  conscience  have  always  had  pre- 
cedence in  the  preacher's  message.  Because  apostolic 
preaching  was  so  largely  of  this  t\^e  the  preacher  is  coun- 
selled to  make  it  an  object  of  special  study  and  to  seek 
his  inspiration  in  it.  To  bring  pastoral  hfe,  where  the 
passion  for  saving  men  may  be  fully  nourished  and  where 
the  requisite  evangehstic  fervor  may  be  secured,  into 
close  touch  with  the  message  of  the  pulpit  is  always  an 
important  consideration  in  the  shepherding  of  ^  souls. 
And  it  is  this  evangelistic  spirit  that  gives  a  certain  dis- 
tinctive tone  and  quality  to  the  pastoral  type  of  preach- 
ing, which  aims  at  the  education  and  edification  of  the 


40S  THE  MODEI-Cs    PVLPIT 

Ciuisiiaii  commimiry.  and  which,  in  the  enlarsement  of 
inteliecrual  life  and  increase  of  Kterar}"  culrare.  is  more 
fullv  developed  in  ail  secdons  of  die  Mediodist  dmrch 
in  all  parts  of  die  counny. 

A  divine  call  to  the  ministrv  presupposes  a  5ux>ng 
sense  of  the  importance  of  preaching  with  reference  to 
"saving  immortal  souls,"  and  with  this  aim  the  preacher 
expects  and  has  a  ri^t  to  expect  immediate  divine  aid 
in  his  proclamation.  Rightly  does  he  assume  that  the 
evangelistic  charism  of  Paul  and  of  the  early  Christian 
preachers,  as  discussed  in.  i  Cor.  ii.  cannot  be  limited 
to  the  £"x>stoI:c  church.  Such  preaching  demands  im- 
~ri.i:t  i--i  —".nffest  results,  and  no  sermon  should  be 
renttri  ir  reithizg  its  legidmate  aim  without  them. 
Hctiit  —  t  zLzzLy  emotional,  often  ecstatic,  and  always 
fortri-i  izi  persuasive  quality  of  it.  The  hortatory 
eJe~e~:  jiiis  always  been  prominent.  So  important  is 
it  that  it  is  not  only  expected  of  the  ordinary  pastoral 
preacher,  but  a  special  class  of  preachers  is  appointed 
for  this  service,  and  the  habit  of  exhortation,  not  only 
upon  the  basis  of  the  preachers  own  discourse,  which 
only  thus  is  worthily  complete,  but  upon  the  basis  of 
others'  preaching,  has  never  been  wholly  lost.  To  utilize 
the  providences  of  life  for  purposes  of  moral  incentive 
is  in  line  with  the  impressional  character  of  Methodist 
I  re  1 :  _-. .  The  funeral  discourse  has  been  a  prominent 
h:-..t  .:  zT'Ai-'.  iz  the  Methodist  church,  and  perhaps 
i"-_  -i  ~  ::r  :::tin:n  than  in  many  other  religious  com- 
munions. In  the  EpiscoDal  church  one  rarely  hears  a 
funeral  discourse.  In  the  Methodist  church  the  preacher 
should  hear  the  voice  of  death  and  fail  not  to  inculcate 
its  kssous.  Its  loyalty  to  men  of  light  and  leading  within 
its  ranks  is  highly  commendable,  and  the  free  utterances 
of  its  preachers  in  prayer  and  address  in  memorial  ser- 
vices for  the  dead  are  often  of  a  most  profoundly  impres- 
ave  character.    To  interpret  the  providences  of  human 


THE  PRE.\CHING  OF  TKZ  UNITED  S7ATz.S       ^C-; 

life,  according  to  their  conceprion  of  iiier:i.  iia.5  c^tn  an 
interestiiig  and  a  prominent  specialty  of  the  Met-ocis: 
preachers.  Few  preachers  have  ever  surpassed  Bishop 
Simi)son  in  his  power  to  impress  upon  men  the  mysterious 
but  holy  and  gradous  significance  of  :'-e  Divine  Provi- 
dence. 

The  evangelistic  and  inirtEs::-!.  ihiri::^:  ::'  ^^tho- 
dist  preaching  naturally  :tr.  15  ..v:  ti:;"  .rirt:  5  zim. 
In  order  to  attain  to  skill  a~-  ez;:_  iiitE:  —  :.  -tr.  - -e: 
begin  early.  The  habit  of  bearing  witness  for  '-Lr.r. 
in  the  public  assembly  has  been  tributary  to  the  ' ".  i  - ::. : r. 
of  a  special  class  of  lay  preachers,  and  the  man  :  -.- 

be  available  for  a  higher  omdal  ministry  must  nave  years 
of  training  in  the  lower  school.  Preaching  from  '.zz  —  anu- 
script  is  more  common  to-day  than  in  years  zn:  In 
instructive  quality  there  may  be  a  gain  here.  :-:  —  *-hat 
impressive  power  which  has  been  so  di::s.:::'  t  1  mark 
of  Methodism  it  is  questionable  whether  .:.:  nay  not 
be  a  loss.  But  the  church  is  commirec  ::  -.r  zxiempo- 
raneous  method,  and  its  influence  ir.  :rr  in:::  1:^  iv-on.  of  it 
into  other  communions  has  been  power:-,  mi  ::  :-  :rr:am 
that  it  wiU  not  reverse  its  record.  .-.mirr  .-j.  e^'sat 
preachers  of  the  Methodist  church,''  says  Dr.  J^^rier  - 
''either  in  Europe  or  America,  it  is  not  known  un.'. 
one  was  ever  an  habitual  reader  of  sermcos."  It  is 
defended  as  the  "normal  method  of  sermon  speech" 
and  it  is  advocated  as  placing  the  preacher  in  a  -posirion 
to  receive  aid  from  on  high  when  speaking."  '  Its  impor- 
tance as  a  support  for  the  evangelistic  type  of  preaciing 
is  evident.  Platform  speaking  is  advocated,  and  there 
are  probably  a  larger  number  of  effective  plancrm  =rean- 
ers  in  the  Methodist  church  than  in  any  O-her.  Tz.^ 
effect  of  this  sort  of  speech  upon  preaching  is  mmiirs: 
Self-Dossession.  directness,  pertinence,  and  c:r:r::rrt55 
are  qualities  that  bear  witness.  Tne  sympathe:::  c-eii=n: 
'Homflerics,"  489-         '  ^W^  5^^  '  -'^-  3-^ 


1  "1 


410  THE   MODERN    PULPIT 

is  accentuated,  and  above  all  a  holy  unction,  the  speech 
of  a  pious  heart.  In  training,  fluency  and  freedom  of 
speech  are  put  in  the  forefront.  Accuracy  may  well 
be  subordinate  to  these  qualities  and  the  accuracy  which 
should  follow  must  be  that  of  popular  diction.  Force- 
fulness  is  the  crowning  rhetorical  virtue.  The  power  of 
the  truth  is  never  minimized  by  the  Methodist  church, 
but  the  forcefulness  of  the  preacher  and  the  inspiration  of 
a  consecrated  personality  are  coordinate  with  it.  Street, 
field,  and  camp-meeting  speech  have  been  tributary  to 
extemporaneous  power.  It  abounds  in  anecdote  and  in 
citation  from  famihar  Scriptures  and  hymns.  As  the 
utterance  of  strong  feeling  and  conviction,  Methodist 
preaching  is  also  a  strongly  imaginative  utterance.  It 
sometimes  deals  with  types  of  figurative  language  not 
common  in  our  day.  The  rhetorical  figure  of  vision 
in  the  hands  of  Bishop  Simpson  was  used  with  great 
impressiveness.  Modem  rhetorical  tastes  have  greatly 
modified  all  this,  and  an  element  of  reflective  sobriety 
largely  takes  the  place  of  rhetorical  exuberance.  But 
the  emotional,  the  sympathetic  quality  will  always  wit- 
ness to  the  subjective  and  experimental  basis  of  the 
preaching  of  the  church. 

As  the  revival  church,  Methodism  is  also  the  reform 
church.  The  evangelistic  element  has  developed  the  ethical 
element.  It  began  as,  and  it  has  never  ceased  to  be,  a  great 
missionary  church.  Its  philanthropic  activities  are  coeval 
with  its  evangeHstic  enterprise.  Upon  the  missionary 
life  of  the  modem  church  no  one  religious  influence  is 
comparable  with  it.  But  its  rehgious  life  has  been  the 
inspiration  of  all  its  philanthropies.  It  is  organized  as 
a  philanthropic  institution,  and  its  method  is  direct. 
Its  compact  ecclesiasticism  is  singularly  effective,  internally 
and  extemally.  But  its  philanthropies  are  not  hmited 
by  ecclesiastical  boundaries.  All  genuine  philanthropy 
finds  in  it  a  ready  response.     To  the  temperance  reform 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES         411 

no  branch  of  the  church  has  been  more  completely, 
more  continuously,  more  consistently,  more  conscien- 
tiously, if  not  always  more  wisely  devoted.  Its  preachers 
are  preeminently,  in  some  spheres,  reform  preachers. 
Their  influence  in  political  reform  has  not  always  been 
what  might  have  been  desired  or  expected,  but  in  reforms 
outside  the  sphere  of  pohtics  they  have  led  the  van. 

It  is  manifest  that  Methodism  has  never  attached 
supreme  importance  to  the  intellectual  or  aesthetic  ele- 
ments in  religion.  Its  original  revolt,  in  so  far  as  it  had 
a  distinctively  intellectual  or  doctrinal  basis,  was  not 
against  the  fundamental  teachings  of  the  Anglican  church, 
but  against  the  tyrannical  Calvinism  that  was  prevalent 
in  the  Puritan  rather  than  in  the  Anglican  churches. 
But  it  was  characteristically  a  rehgious  rather  than  an 
intellectual  revolt  and  its  influence  in  freeing  the  American 
churches  from  the  grip  of  Calvinism  and  in  pushing  to 
the  front  the  evangehstic  and  ethical  elements  of  Chris- 
tianity has  been  powerful.  It  has  never  laid  a  heavy  exac- 
tion upon  the  theological  behefs  of  its  constituencies.  Its 
teachings  have  always  dealt  largely  with  the  experimental 
aspects  of  the  truth  and  have  always  been  tributary  to 
practical  Hfe.  In  line  with  its  theological  traditions 
it  appeals  to  the  objective  authority  of  the  Bible  and  rests 
the  claims  of  Christianity  upon  its  external  evidences. 
But  it  has  never  failed  to  lay  due  stress  upon  the  internal 
evidences  and  its  chief  teachings  have  always  been  such 
as  find  ready  verification  in  the  realities  of  rehgious 
experience.  The  freedom  and  largeness  of  God's  grace, 
the  suffering  love  of  Christ,  the  universality  and  practical 
avaihngness  of  the  atonement,  the  depravity  of  the  human 
heart,  the  necessity  of  regeneration,  the  possibihty  of 
instantaneous  justification  and  conversion,  the  freedom 
of  the  human  spirit,  the  witnessing  power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  in  the  souls  of  behevers,  the  certitude  of  Christian 
experience,    the   possibihty   of   Christian   perfection,    the 


412  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

glory  of  the  heavenly  life,  and  the  terrors  of  eternal  death,  — 
these  are  some  of  the  themes  upon  which  Methodism 
has  dealt,  with  a  practical  power  that  has  quickened  and 
controlled  the  rehgious  life.  Its  doctrinal  standards 
have  confessedly  undergone  no  material  change.  In- 
dividual preachers  and  teachers,  it  is  true,  have  pushed 
beyond  their  boundaries  into  new  and  modern  fields 
of  thought,  and  in  fact  in  the  presentation  of  its  theology 
by  all  its  leading  preachers  to-day  one  will  find  but  httle 
that  is  archaic.  One  will  recognize  the  modem  note  in 
their  methods  of  interpretation  and  at  the  same  time 
will  not  miss  what  is  vital  to  the  interests  of  the  practical 
Christian  hfe.  But  the  church  nominally  adheres  to  a 
type  of  theology  that  belongs  to  a  past  age.  To  the 
scientific  aspects  of  theology  it  has  made  no  notable 
contribution.  In  speculative  theology  it  is  not  wholly 
at  home,  and  the  methods  of  critical  and  historical  science 
have  not  been  fully  adopted,  nor  its  results  fully  appro- 
priated. Doctrinally  it  stands  in  a  general  way  for  theo- 
logical conservatism.  But  its  teachings  have  never  failed 
to  be  tributary  to  the  practical  needs  of  the  individual 
soul  and  to  the  moral  welfare  of  human  society. 

The  educational  standards  and  methods  of  the  Metho- 
dist church  are  in  Hne  with  the  exigencies  and  pecuharities 
of  its  history  and  their  results  appear  in  the  quahty  of 
its  preaching.  It  has  never  fully  accepted  the  Protestant 
tradition  of  a  learned  ministry.  It  has  never,  it  is  true, 
ignored  or  undervalued  the  importance  of  an  educated 
ministry  in  the  more  comprehensive  and  practical  sense 
of  the  term.  But  it  has  had  no  leadership  in  the  higher 
forms  of  scientific  education  in  any  field,  and  it  has  never 
demanded  the  highest  type  of  technical  or  professional 
education  for  its  ministry  as  a  whole.  Modem  hfe  has 
indeed  modified  the  attitude  of  a  considerable  portion  of 
the  church  with  respect  to  the  educational  problem, 
and  we  cannot  fail  to  see  the  significance  of  the  change 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        413 

for  its  future.  Men  of  learning  are  not  at  discount  in 
the  church.  The  equipment  of  its  universities,  colleges, 
and  professional  schools  is  increasingly  good,  and  they 
are  sending  out  men  into  the  ministry  whose  scientific 
training  elevates,  dignifies,  and  renders  more  worthily 
effective  the  practical  training  which  they  receive  in  the 
service  of  the  church.  Such  men  are  among  the  most 
competent  church  leaders  of  our  day. 

One  of  the  results  of  this  broadening  and  modern- 
izing of  ministerial  cuhure  is  the  ehmination  or  modifica- 
tion of  certain  idiosyncrasies  which  have  been  distinctive 
of  Methodist  preachers.  While  retaining  desirable 
indi\'idual  peculiarities  and  what  is  best  in  their  own 
denominational  training,  the  best  preachers  of  the  church 
approach  the  standards  which,  in  this  cosmopolitan  age, 
have  become  a  common  possession  of  the  preachers  of 
all  communions  and  all  schools. 

But  it  still  remains  true  that  Methodism  lays  special 
emphasis  upon  the  practical  aspects  of  ministerial  educa- 
tion. Its  supreme  aim  is  to  produce  effective  preachers  and 
church  leaders.  Its  work  has  from  the  first  been  limited 
to  a  considerable  extent  to  the  relatively  uneducated 
classes,  whose  religious  needs  have  not  seemed  to  call 
for  the  highest  professional  training  in  their  leaders. 
For  a  hundred  years  there  were  no  first-class  training 
schools  for  its  ministr}\  The  character  of  the  work 
to  which  it  has  regarded  itself  as  providentially  assigned 
and  its  amazing  success  in  the  hands  of  practical,  saga- 
cious, forceful,  and  consecrated  men  without  scholastic 
equipment  have  perhaps  obscured  or  minimized  the 
importance  of  the  highest  order  of  learning  and  scholarly 
equipment.  At  any  rate  it  is  clear  enough  that  the  value 
of  the  highest  professional  education  has  not  been  fully 
and  universally  recognized,  and  as  a  consequence  its 
academic,  scientific,  and  professional  schools  have  de- 
veloped slowly. 


414  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

The  "book  concern"  that  suppHes  the  denominational 
Hterature  which  the  ministry  is  expected  to  advocate 
and  push  into  use  demonstrates  by  its  financial  prosperity 
the  estimate  in  which  it  is  held.  That  it  has  been  strongly 
tributary  to  the  ecclesiastical  fortunes  of  Methodism  there 
can  be  no  question.  But  some  forms  of  this  hterature, 
designed  chiefly  for  home  consumption,  and  bearing  the 
ecclesiastical  mark,  like  all  denominational  hterature 
lacks  the  modem  note  and  the  touch  of  intellectual 
cathohcity. 

The  theological  and  ministerial  training  schools  of 
Methodism  still,  and  wisely,  seek  and  advocate  the  practical 
elements  in  professional  education  and  aim  at  practical 
results.  Under  ecclesiastical  control,  they  never  escape 
supervision  and  are  never  allowed  to  lose  sight  of  the 
importance  of  sending  out  preachers  and  church  leaders 
into  effective  service.  The  minister's  work  is  carefully 
adjusted  to  the  needs  of  the  people  whom  he  is  to  serve. 
He  is,  therefore,  taught  much  besides  technical  theology. 
With  the  Baptist  communion,  but  much  more  fully, 
Methodism  accepts  the  position  that  it  is  not  necessary  for 
every  minister  to  be  elaborately  educated  in  order  to  be  a 
useful  servant  of  Christ.  But  it  is  necessary  that  every 
minister  be  adequately  trained  to  meet  the  practical 
needs  of  the  people  to  whom  he  ministers.  The  result 
is  that  while  in  the  best  equipped  theological  schools  of 
the  church  there  are  not  wanting  those  who  share  the 
product  of  the  most  advanced  modem  scientific  culture, 
there  are  none  that  wholly  fail  to  secure  a  practical 
training.  This  problem  of  adjusting  the  scientific  and 
practical  aspects  of  ministerial  training  is  yet  to  be  suc- 
cessfully met  in  the  theological  schools  of  all  Protestant 
churches. 

Study  under  leading  Methodist  church  officials  is  also 
conducive  to  the  production  of  practical  men.  The 
prevaiUng  conception  of  the  ministerial  call  tends  in  the 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        415 

same  general  direction.  The  witnessing  function  of  the 
church  by  virtue  of  which  the  entire  brotherhood  and 
sisterhood  are  encouraged  to  give  expression  to  the  inner 
reahties  of  Christian  experience  has,  as  already  indicated, 
fostered  the  gift  of  Christian  speech.  Lay  preaching  is  a 
product  of  this  witnessing  Spirit.  Men  "learn  to  preach 
by  preaching."  Moreover,  as  church  leaders,  all  Methodist 
ministers  have  had  years  of  ex-perience  as  la\TTien  in  the 
work  of  the  church.  By  a  positive  message,  spiritually 
appropriated  and  cogently  enforced,  they  are  expected 
to  reach  and  wdn  men.  And  they  do  it  with  notable 
effectiveness. 

The  influence  of  a  strong,  centrahzed  ecclesiastical 
system  is  manifest  in  the  preaching  of  Methodism.  Its 
government  is  a  pretty  stiff  form  of  external  ecclesiastical 
authority.  The  laity  of  the  church  have  doubtless  be- 
come increasingly  influential  in  its  counsels,  but  a  demo- 
cratic age  and  nation  have  effected  no  very  material  modi- 
fication in  its  rigid  ecclesiasticism.  It  was  obliged  to 
abandon  the  Anghcan  church  system.  Its  poHty  is  not  an 
inheritance  from  the  Anghcan  communion.  Most  of  its 
pecuHarities  of  organization  and  administration  are  a 
product  of  the  exigencies  of  its  historic  experience.  But 
it  has  held  with  strong  tenacity,  and  in  many  respects 
with  singular  success,  to  a  concentrated  official  government, 
and  it  has  been  called  the  most  imperial  of  all  repubUcan 
ecclesiastical  systems.  Yet  its  ultimate  basis  is  not 
external.  It  rests  upon  no  objective  apostohc  authority, 
and  its  basis  is  more  than  an  objective  delegated  authority. 
Its  rests  ultimately  upon  the  subjective  divine  call  of  its 
ministr\-.  This  call  of  its  leaders  the  church  has  recog- 
nized and  vindicated  and  upon  this  basis  has  committed 
power  and  authority  to  their  hands.  Slow  as  Mr.  Wesley 
was  in  breaking  with  the  mother  church,  he,  from  the  first, 
gave  precedence  to  the  subjective  principle,  regarding 
ordination  in  any  church  as  primarily  a  recognition  by  it 


4l6  •    THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

of  a  divine  call  to  the  ministr>'.  It  is  upon  the  basis  of 
this  call  of  God  that  every  church  officer,  from  the  bishop 
to  the  humblest  local  preacher,  is  placed  in  official  trust. 
And  it  is  the  objective,  authoritative  vindication  by  the 
church  of  this  subjective  principle  that  has  given  character 
to  its  sturdy  ecclesiasticism. 

This  combination  of  subjective  freedom  and  external 
authority,  of  spiritual  impulse  and  ecclesiastical  control 
does  not  fail  to  disclose  itself  in  the  preaching  of  Metho- 
dism. Its  leading  characteristics  are,  as  already  indicated, 
conditioned  by  the  dominance  of  its  subjective  principle. 
But  in  the  average  preacher  one  readily  detects  the 
ecclesiastical  note.  The  traditions  of  a  close  ecclesiastical 
system  are  behind  him.  That  he  should  feel  the  power 
of  a  strongly  organized  government  and  administration 
is  not  unnatural  and  is  not  matter  for  reproach.  That 
the  consciousness  of  achievement,  the  stimulus  of  success, 
a  tone  of  positiveness,  an  air  of  certainty,  the  forcefulness 
of  self-assertion,  a  certain  pride  of  loyalty,  and  a  certain 
exultation  in  the  great  triumphs  of  his  church  and  in  its 
hopes  for  the  future  should  appear  at  times  in  his  preach- 
ing is  by  no  means  an  element  of  weakness,  but  rather 
of  strength.  But  if  one  detects  a  certain  querulous- 
ness  and  impatience  of  contradiction,  a  certain  polemic 
severity  and  cocksureness  and  sense  of  easy  triumph  over 
venturesome  critics  of  the  ecclesiastical  machinery,  a 
tone  of  dogmatic  assurance,  and  of  sectarian  provincial- 
ism, one  questions  whether  the  sense  of  ecclesiastical 
powerlessness  that  is  very  legitimately  nourished  in  the 
autonomous  communions  may  not  be  more  effectively 
tributary  to  ecclesiastical  modesty  at  least.  And  in  fact 
one  sometimes  suspects  that  there  may  be  a  practical 
antinomy  between  the  spiritual  freedom  and  the  eccle- 
siastical autocracy  of  the  Methodist  church.  After  all, 
does  not  spiritual  freedom  thrive  best  in  an  atmosphere 
of  ecclesiastical  freedom? 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES         417 

As  Methodism  is  committed  ecclesiastically  to  a  close, 
externally  ordered  government,  so  ethically  to  a  close, 
externally  ordered,  methodical  life.  The  name  it  bears 
suggests  the  prominence  of  this  characteristic,  and  the 
fact  that  it  has  been  retained  by  the  church  is  proof  of 
the  recognition  of  its  importance.  It  is  significant  that 
it  is  the  objective  rather  than  the  subjective  principle 
that  is  accentuated  in  the  name  by  v^'hich  it  is  known 
To  the  inward  piety  of  Methodism  answers  an  external 
type  of  self-denial  that  reaches  the  measure  of  asceticism. 
This  ascetic  habit  is  of  course  regarded  as  a  normal 
expression  of  piety.  It  was  so  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Wesley. 
It  was  the  elevation  of  his  spirit  that  withdrew  him  from 
the  fascinations  of  all  forms  of  worldly  hfe.  Indulgences 
that  were  in  themselves  innocent  he  regarded  as  hostile 
to  the  welfare  of  the  soul.  This  involved  an  effort  to 
harmonize  the  Judaistic  and  Christian  elements  in  religion, 
to  combine  the  legal  and  evangehcal  elements.  In  the 
early  history  of  Methodism  this  may  have  been  fairly 
successful,  but  in  the  church's  change  of  attitude  toward 
the  world,  and  especially  in  its  changed  conception  as  to 
what  constitutes  worldliness,  the  antinomy  between  the 
legal  and  evangelical  principles  has  been  made  manifest. 
The  external  authority  that  would  take  the  individual 
Christian  under  control  with  respect  to  the  ordering  of 
the  conduct  of  his  Hfe  does  not  seem  altogether  consonant 
with  evangelical  freedom  and  with  that  spontaneity  of 
the  inner  hfe  which  gives  wide  scope  to  the  spiritual  im- 
pulses that  are  stored  in  the  church  and  which  permits 
the  individual  Christian  to  be  a  free  witness  bearer  to 
the  reahties  of  the  hfe  of  the  Spirit.  The  committal  of 
the  church  to  the  external,  prohibitory  method  of  dcahng 
with  the  temperance  problem  is  in  line  with  the  impor- 
tance which  it  attaches  to  the  legal  method  of  ordering 
the  affairs  of  hfe.  But  it  has  become  evident  that  the 
legal  cannot  be  successfully  combined  with  the  evangehcal 


41 8  THE    MODERN   PULPIT 

principle,  and  the  effort  to  order  the  external  life  of  the 
individual  Christian  in  the  Methodist  church  has  failed. 
We  find  an  antinomy  of  a  different  sort  in  the  Episcopal 
church.  The  individual  Christian  is  measurably  free  in  the 
ordering  of  his  own  personal  Hfe,  but  subject  to  close 
authority  in  the  ordering  of  his  church  life.  In  all  ques- 
tions of  worldly  amusement  the  church  has  no  voice. 
A  laisscr  jaire  attitude  has  been  charged  against  it  and  it 
has  been  called  the  most  worldly  of  all  Protestant  churches. 
This  may  be  unjust.  But  it  is  at  least  in  somewhat 
striking  contrast  with  the  church  authority  that  lays 
injunction  upon  the  scrupulous  observance  of  ecclesiastical 
duties. 

The  influence  of  the  ascetic  element  in  Methodism 
has  lingered  about  its  preaching.  The  legal  note  has  been 
prominent  and  it  is  the  provincial  note.  As  an  influence 
in  the  interest  of  ecclesiastical  efficiency,  it  may  have 
something  to  say  for  itself,  but  as  an  educative  influence 
and  a  foster  source  of  spiritual  freedom  and  power,  it 
has  proved  ineffective. 

2.  Bishop  Simpson  has  attributed  the  rapid  progress  of 
Methodism  in  the  United  States  to  three  causes:  the 
adaptation  of  its  teachings  to  the  moral  and  spiritual  needs 
of  men,  the  effectiveness  of  its  organization,  and  the  zeal 
and  consecration  of  its  adherents.^  As  to  the  significance 
of  these  sources  of  power  there  can  be  no  question.  Its 
doctrines  of  grace  and  of  human  responsibihty  have  been 
prominent  influences  in  emancipating  the  Puritan  churches 
from  the  tyranny  of  Calvinism  and  in  opening  a  broader, 
freer,  and  richer  Christian  life.  Its  strongly  centralized 
government,  an  apparent  necessity  of  the  exigencies 
of  its  early  history,  whatever  its  hmitations  in  the  educa- 
tion and  training  of  individual  manhood  and  woman- 
hood within  the  sphere  of  evangelical  freedom,  has  been 
singularly  successful  in  the  management  of  large  and 
'  "A  Hundred  Years  of  Methodism,"  Ch.  XIX. 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        419 

complicated  ecclesiastical  interests.  The  enthusiastic 
devotion  of  its  constituency  to  the  cause  of  rehgion  and 
morahty  within  its  own  borders  and  its  sympathy  with 
all  worthy  efforts  from  without  to  promote  the  pubUc 
welfare  are  universally  recognized.  But  there  is  one 
agency  of  which  this  great  and  good  bishop  was  himself 
an  illustrious  exemplification,  and  of  which  he  was  of 
course  not  at  all  ignorant,  but  of  which,  in  his  modest 
shrinking  from  glorying  in  men,  he  makes  no  mention. 
I  mean  the  skill  of  its  leaders  and  especially  the  power 
of  its  great  preachers.  The  presence  of  a  transcendent 
spiritual  force  in  the  personal  hves  of  its  adherents,  in 
the  conduct  of  its  teachers  and  leaders,  and  in  the  prophetic 
utterances  of  its  preachers  is  of  course  to  be  recognized. 
But  there  were  human  elements  in  this  great  leadership 
and  there  were  human  conditions  of  power.  What  was 
merely  human,  of  course,  would  not  have  availed.  But 
the  world  knows  that  its  leading  men  were  peculiarly 
adapted  to  the  work  they  had  in  hand.  Like  the  leaders 
of  the  apostolic  churches,  these  men  had  the  charisms 
of  the  Spirit.  But  their  gifts  for  leadership  were  also 
gifts  of  nature,  and  they  were  trained  gifts  too.  They 
were  the  natural  leaders  of  their  people,  and  their  leader- 
ship was  won  by  the  process  of  natural  selection  not  less 
than  by  the  gifts  of  grace  and  of  Providence.  A  succession 
of  strong  men,  men  self-trained  in  part,  but  trained  also 
in  the  rigorous  school  of  life,  trained  in  the  battle  which 
they  waged  against  the  forces  of  evil,  men  with  great 
gifts  for  leadership,  have  led  and  have  honored  the  Metho- 
dist church.  They  have  especially  been  men  who  had 
in  an  exceptional  degree  the  power  to  reach  the  hearts 
and  consciences  of  those  under  whose  leadership  Provi- 
dence had  placed  them,  and  to  win  them  to  the  service 
of  Christ.  The  nation  owes  them  a  debt  of  gratitude 
which  should  not  fail  of  recognition.  We  stand  here  at 
the  border  of  a  field  that  solicits  the  interest  and  the 


420  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

research  of  enterprising  men,  and  which  has  not  been 
adequately  explored.  A  study  of  the  sources  of  power  in 
the  preaching  of  the  Methodist  church,  a  power  that  has 
touched  the  pulpit  of  every  Protestant  communion  in  the 
land,  were  a  worthy  task  and  might  well  engage  us. 
But  this  is  not  the  time  nor  place.  The  preaching  of  these 
men  was  of  the  artless  type.  It  was  the  witness-bearing 
utterance,  the  utterance  of  strong  feeling  and  strong 
conviction,  that  mightily  swayed  the  souls  of  men.  It 
was  especially  adapted  to  the  needs  of  a  particular  class. 
There  were  classes  whom  it  did  not  reach.  In  its  early 
form  it  would  fail  to-day  with  any  class.  But  its  elements 
of  power  abide  and  it  only  needs  the  transforming  touch 
of  time  and  of  the  eternal  Spirit  which  is  the  same  "yester- 
day, to-day,  and  forever."  Its  reahty  has  been  its  promi- 
nent note.  As  such  it  has  the  human  elements  and 
conditions  of  power.  If  it  had  lacked  these  human 
elements  and  conditions  of  effectiveness  it  never  could 
have  become  a  charism  of  the  Spirit  in  adjusting  itself  to 
the  needs  of  men's  souls.  There  were  gifts  of  nature 
in  it,  and  these  gifts  were  trained.  It  was  nature  in- 
spired and  consecrated.  It  was  an  artless  speech  that 
was  at  once  a  gift  of  nature  and  a  gift  of  grace.  Summer- 
field,  the  youthful  Enghshman,  whose  brief  but  briUiant 
career  was  among  the  wonders  of  his  day,  was  one  of  these 
gifts  of  Providence  to  the  Methodist  church,  and  the 
tradition  of  his  power  has  become  in  some  sort  a  cherished 
possession  of  all  the  American  churches.  "Seraphic 
eloquence,"  "an  enchanting  speaker,"  "brilliant  and 
pathetic,"  "a  genius  for  eloquence,"  "a  soul  wrapt  in 
the  power  of  his  theme,  thrilhng  and  swaying  and  melting 
into  tears  whole  masses  of  almost  breathless  auditors"  — 
—  these  and  the  hke  are  terms  used  by  men  who  are  not 
ignorant  of  the  meaning  of  words  that  characterize  the 
impression  which  he  made.  He  was  peer  of  the  great 
political  orators  of  his  day,  of  whom  there  were  many  — 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES       421 

far  more,  not  only  relatively  but  absolutely,  than  can  be 
found  in  our  day.  Like  many  another  in  the  Methodist 
church  he  began  to  preach  before  he  was  twenty  years 
old.  At  the  age  of  twenty-four  he  had  won  a  place  in 
evangehsm  surpassed  by  no  preacher  in  the  land,  and 
at  twenty-five  his  course  was  run.  He  had  the  gifts  that 
EngUsh  Methodism  knows  how  to  evoke,  and  the  early 
culture  of  a  Moravian  school  was  also  his.  He  passed 
his  early  days  among  business  men  and  had  the  training 
and  the  experience  of  a  business  man.  He  had  plunged 
into  a  life  of  youthful  dissipation  and  was  won  by  a  power 
that  searched  him  to  the  depths  of  his  soul.  He  preached 
in  Dubhn  and  won  the  Irish  heart  by  the  pathos  of  his 
speech.  It  was  the  layman's  speech  and  product  of  the 
la\Tnan's  habit  of  mind,  nonprofessional,  simple,  direct, 
forceful,  powerful  in  emotion,  concrete,  illustrative, 
vivid,  dramatic,  unartistic  hke  the  speech  of  John  B. 
Gough,  not  the  trained  speech  of  the  church  official.  But 
let  us  not  imagine  that  this  gift  was  an  untrained  gift. 
No  man,  however  gifted,  ever  becomes  a  great  pubhc 
speaker  without  the  training  of  his  powers.  In  England 
and  in  Ireland  he  heard  the  best  pubhc  speakers  of  his 
day,  and  contemporary  with  him  in  his  adopted  countr}' 
were  many  who  had  won  the  pubhc  ear  and  were  widely 
known  as  orators.  He  knew  his  art,  though  he  spake  as 
one  unconscious  of  it.  He  was  a  productive  preacher, 
and  although  his  career  was  short  he  left  behind  hundreds 
of  discourses.  Those  that  have  been  pubhshed  are  in 
fragmentary  form,  some  of  them  mere  outUnes,  and  can 
convey  no  adequate  impression  of  his  power.  Like 
most  evangehstic  sermons,  they  have  but  little  permanent 
value  as  they  appear  on  the  printed  page.  But  they 
surpass  the  discourses  of  Whitefield  in  their  suggestion  of 
homiletic  skill,  and  are  of  more  permanent  value  to  the 
student  of  homiletics.  The  marks  of  the  preacher's 
passionate  intensity  may  be  found  in  their  exclamator}' 


422  THE    MODERN   PULPIT 

utterances,  in  their  brief  catch  words  about  which  thought 
and  feeHng  centre,  and  in  the  final  appeal  which  never  fails. 
But  they  are  wholly  inadequate  to  reveal  the  rhetori- 
cian and  the  orator.  They  are  interesting  in  their  methodi- 
cal and  logical  order  and  are  forcible  in  their  climacteric 
movement.  In  the  range  and  variety  of  the  thoughts  sug- 
gested, in  the  fulness  of  their  development  as  indicated 
by  their  outhnes,  and  in  the  unexpected  applications  of 
the  truth,  they  should  not  fail  even  to-day  to  interest  the 
enterprising  student  of  evangeHstic  preaching. 

To  this  same  class  of  highly  impassioned  and  impres- 
sional  preachers  belonged  Dr.  John  P.  Durbin,  a  contem- 
porary of  Summerfield,  but  two  years  his  junior,  and  with 
a  reputation  already  won  and  established  in  his  own 
ecclesiastical  circle  at  the  time  of  Summerfield's  death  in 
1825.  He  is  not  without  significance  in  the  educational 
movements  of  his  church,  which  began  to  take  more 
definite  shape  and  to  broaden  their  reach  at  the  beginning 
of  the  last  centur}^  and  in  the  elevation  of  the  intellectual 
standards  of  its  pulpit.  Preeminently  an  advocate,  he 
was  not,  however,  without  the  gifts  of  the  pulpit  teacher. 
His  education,  laboriously  acquired  after  his  entrance, 
at  the  age  of  eighteen,  upon  his  ministerial  work,  was, 
after  its  kind  and  according  to  the  standards  of  the  time, 
thorough  and  comprehensive  and  sufficient  to  place  him 
in  a  position  of  prominence  among  the  educated  preachers 
of  the  church.  At  the  age  of  twenty-five  he  was  appointed 
professor  of  languages  in  the  first  college  founded  by 
the  American  Methodist  church,  and  the  variety  of  his 
scholarly  acquisitions  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that 
six  years  later  he  was  appointed  to  the  professorship 
of  natural  science  at  Wesleyan  University.  For  the  period 
of  eleven  years  he  was  subsequently  president  of  Dickinson 
College.  As  college  professor,  president,  and  at  one  time 
ecclesiastical  journalist,  he  made  himself  felt  in  educational 
interests.     As  secretary  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society, 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES       423 

in  which  position  he  closed  his  career,  he  found  scope 
for  his  administrative  gifts,  which  the  ecclesiastical  system 
of  the  IMcthodist  church  so  fully  cultivates,  and  which, 
had  he  chosen,  might  have  found  a  sphere  in  the  bishopric. 
But  from  first  to  last  he  was  a  preacher.  Into  every  sphere 
of  duty  he  carried  his  characteristic  power,  and  his  wide 
reputation  rested  chiefly  upon  his  preaching  gifts.  He 
was  eleven  years  the  senior  of  Bishop  Simpson,  and  the 
two  men  have  been  estimated  as  the  greatest  pulpit  orators 
in  the  church  of  their  day.  He  was  a  natural  orator. 
His  birthplace  and  early  home  was  in  the  south  and  he 
may  have  inherited  the  southern  gift  for  eloquent  speech. 
But  it  was  a  cultivated  gift.  He  belonged  to  no  school 
and  all  his  methods  of  training  were  free  and  such  as 
appealed  to  his  own  sense  of  reality.  But  he  was  careful 
not  to  neglect  the  gift  that  was  in  him. 

The  didactic  element  was  more  prominent  in  his  preach- 
ing than  in  that  of  most  of  the  Methodist  preachers  of 
his  day,  and  although  evangehstic  in  substance,  tone,  and 
aim,  designed  to  produce  a  sense  of  the  need  of  redemp- 
tion, to  present  Christ  as  Saviour,  and  to  win  to  personal 
allegiance,  it  did  not  lack  the  expository  element  and 
aimed  as  well  at  the  edification  of  the  church.  His 
method  has  the  orderly  quality  of  the  instructive  and 
edifying  preacher  and  demonstrates  that  to  secure  clear- 
ness of  apprehension  on  the  part  of  the  hearer  was  his 
first  aim.  But  there  were  limitations  in  his  expository 
method  and  he  was  characteristically  a  highly  emotional 
and  rhetorically  impressive  preacher,  and  was  thus  known. 
His  power  over  his  hearers,  which  was  frequently  sufficient 
to  bring  them  to  their  feet  and  to  liberate  their  vocal 
organs  in  shouts  of  applause,  was  due  in  part  to  sudden 
spasmodic  and  ejaculatory  utterances  for  which  they  were 
not  looking  and  which  came  as  a  surprise.  But  the  dramatic 
element  in  the  discourse  was  always  well  based  and 
always  found   a    rational   justification.     He  was    at    one 


424  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

time  chaplain  of  the  United  States  Senate  and  Hstened 
eagerly  to  the  oratory  of  Webster,  Calhoun,  and  Clay. 
Such  influences  must  have  stirred  within  him  the  native 
oratorical  impulse,  and  all  the  traditions  of  his  career 
are  proof  that  he  carefully  studied  his  art.  He  had  ap- 
parently appropriated  Augustine's  law  of  pubhc  speech, 
which  is,  in  fact,  only  a  reproduction  of  the  law  of  the 
classical  rhetorician.  It  demands  that  the  speaker  begin 
with  a  plain  and  simple  style,  which  indicates  self-poise 
and  a  reflective  attitude  of  mind  and  would  adjust  itself 
to  the  hearer's  intelligence,  that  he  advance  to  a  more 
stirring  but  medium  style,  which  may  secure  an  emotional 
interest  in  the  discussion  and  rivet  attention,  and  that  it 
close  with  a  lofty  or  impassioned  style  that  shall  compel 
the  will.  This  was  Dr.  Durbin's  method,  and  it  is  prob- 
able that  he  was  familiar  with  the  rationale  of  the  theory. 
As  a  rhetorician  he  kept  in  hand  all  these  elements,  and 
in  their  order,  and  the  orator  followed  the  method  of  the 
rhetorician.  At  the  beginning  of  his  discourse  his  voice 
was  pitched  low  and  maintained  the  conversational  tone, 
and  his  manner  was  deliberate.  But  the  tone  changed 
pitch  and  increased  in  vocal  quantity  as  he  advanced, 
while,  of  course,  all  his  physical  movements  became  more 
animated,  and  the  close  of  the  discourse  never  failed  in 
rhetorical  and  oratorical  climax.  Not  the  native  speaking 
gifts  alone  of  its  preachers  must  be  considered  in  account- 
ing for  the  power  of  the  Methodist  church  with  the  people, 
but  the  attention  given  by  its  leaders  to  the  problem  of 
eflfective  public  speaking,  rhetorically  and  oratorically, 
from  the  time  of  Wesley,  who  in  his  efforts  to  guide  his 
preachers  laid  much  emphasis  upon  its  importance,  and 
on  into  the  beginning  of  the  last  century. 

The  sermon  published  in  "  Pulpit  Eloquence  of  the  Nine- 
teenth Century,"  on  the  omnipresence  of  God,  can  hardly 
convey  an  adequate  impression  of  what  was  most  character- 
istic in  Dr.  Durbin's  preaching.     The  rhetoric  of  his  day 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES       425 

is  not  so  acceptable,  nor  is  it  represented  so  easily  in 
printed  form,  as  that  of  our  own  day,  and  its  oratory  slips 
through  the  hands  of  the  printer.  The  didactic  portion  of 
the  sermon  is  clear  and  discriminating,  but  is  not  at  all 
striking  because  its  thought  is  obvious  and  common.  The 
introduction  fails  somewhat  in  pertinence  and  is  of  a  com- 
posite and  complex  character  and  does  not  put  us  in 
possession  of  the  subject  advantageously.  The  opening 
negative  topic  that  discusses  men's  natural  tendency  to 
shut  God  out  of  his  world  is  not  important  to  the  dis- 
cussion of  the  positive  truth  and  adds  nothing  to  its 
value.  But  when  the  preacher  reaches  the  applicator}^ 
part  of  the  sermon  we  begin  to  feel  his  power.  The 
success  of  the  sermon  is  in  the  force  with  which  he  drives 
home  to  the  consciences  of  his  hearers  the  thought  of  the 
searching  ubiquity  of  God. 

Bishop  Simpson  was  the  successor  of  Dr.  Durbin  in 
the  impressional  type  of  preaching  in  which  they  were 
alike  distinguished.  Their  general  homiletic  methods 
were  similar.  Their  intellectual  endowments  were  not 
unlike.  Both  had  the  tastes  and  the  aspirations  of  men 
who  saw  that  godhness  and  culture  are  not  natural  enemies. 
They  wrestled  hard  for  their  education  and  such  as  was 
possible  in  their  day  they  won.  Both  were  committed  to 
the  intellectual  elevation  of  the  church  and  of  its  pulpit. 
As  college  professors  and  presidents,  and  as  editors,  as 
well  as  in  the  service  of  the  pulpit,  they  both  did  a  needed 
educational  work  for  their  church,  and  in  all  their  efforts 
they  never  forgot  the  spiritual  interests  of  the  people, 
nor  the  special  mission  to  which  their  church  was  called. 
But  the  bishop  was  on  the  whole  the  larger  moulded  man 
and  reached  a  higher  measure  of  power.  He  was  the 
great  preacher  of  his  church  in  the  last  century. 

In  his  case  also  the  published  products  fail  to  give  a 
full  impression  of  his  greatness  as  a  preacher.  It  is  the 
fate  of  the  evangelistic  preacher  that  his  gifts  leave  no 


426  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

adequate  trace  behind,  save  in  the  souls  they  have  touched* 
But  such  discourses  as  we  have  must  be  our  basis  of  esti- 
mate. 

In  looking  at  the  subject-matter  of  Bishop  Simpson's 
preaching,  our  attention  is  at  once  arrested  by  a  certain 
largeness  of  range,  and  in  its  broad  sweep  it  is  interesting 
and  impressive.  It  gives  one  the  impression  of  a  man  who 
deals  easily  with  large  themes  and  who  domesticates 
large  thoughts.  It  is  not  depth  or  subtlety  of  thought. 
It  is  not  novelty,  freshness,  or  suggestiveness,  but  size  and 
range.  His  illustrations  have  a  corresponding  largeness. 
Astronomy,  which  in  professorial  days  he  may  have  taught, 
is  one  of  his  most  fruitful  sources  of  illustration.  The 
stately,  majestic  movements  of  nature  in  general  strongly 
impressed  him.  Mihtary  movements  are  tributary  to  his 
impressionable  imagination.  His  most  eloquent  passages 
touch  upon  scenes  that  give  a  broad  sweep  for  his  fancy, 
like  the  passage  of  a  soul  in  its  flight  to  the  heavenly 
world.  The  element  of  majesty  in  his  rhetorical  style 
is  thus  promoted.  He  was  a  student  of  history  and  had  a 
fondness  for  dealing  with  the  evidences  of  divine  Provi- 
dence therein.  Providence,  as  seen  in  human  history, 
was  in  fact  with  him  as  with  the  preachers  of  the  Metho- 
dist church  in  general  of  a  past  generation  a  favorite 
theme.  In  his  Christian  apologetics  he  inclined  strongly 
to  the  historic  argument.  He  has  much  to  say  about 
God's  grand  designs  and  about  the  necessity  of  working 
in  hne  with  them  and  thus  reahzing  one's  destiny.  In  the 
appointments  of  our  earthly  Hfe,  as,  for  example,  in  the 
birthplace,  the  early  home,  and  in  the  sphere  of  early  edu- 
cation, we  see  the  hand  of  God.  He  saw  the  providences 
of  his  ow^n  hfe  and  hked  to  recount  them.  Others  re- 
garded him  in  early  years  as  a  man  of  destiny,  and  there 
is  no  evidence  that  his  Arminian  theology  interposed 
any  objection  to  the  conception.  "  God's  Reign  on  Earth  " 
is  one  of  his  characteristic  discourses.     It  opens  in  a  broad 


THE   PREACHING   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES    427 

way.     It  directs  attention  to  the  double  movement  of  his- 
tory, the  progressive  and  the  retrogressive.     In  each  there 
appears  at  once  the  infinite  mind.     By  contrast  man  also 
in  his  httleness  appears.      In  a  large,  stately,   and  im- 
pressive way  the  Psahnist's  thought  in  his  text  is  made 
to  pass  expansively  before  us.     The  theme  is  big.  _  The 
discussion  moves  along  a  broad  track.     In  the  magnitudes 
and  not  less  in  the  minutenesses  of  the  universe  we  are  given 
to  see  the  presence  of  the  great  controlhng  mind.     And 
as  he  enters  the  fields  of  histor>'  and  threads  its  intricate 
paths,  we  have  the  same  broad,  free  movement  as  in  a 
territor}'  that  solicits  great  emotions  and  great  imaginings. 
This  suggestion  of  largeness  is  impressive,  and  the  free 
method  of  dehver}^must  have  intensified  the  impressiveness. 
Most  of  the  sermons  in  the  volume  have  this  suggestion 
of  largeness.     They  touch  the  great  things  of  God.    A 
glance  at  the  titles  suggests  a  man  who  is  accustomed  to 
deal  with  the  great  compelling  reahties  of  redemptive  re- 
ligion.    They  were  probably  occasional  sermons  that  were 
frequently  repeated  and  that  grew  in  the  process.     Their 
dimensions  may  in  part  be  thus  accounted  for.    The  range 
of  choice  in  the  themes   is  not    large.     He  concentrates 
upon  what  is  chief  and  central,  but  he  is  led  wide  rang- 
ingly.     In  the  development  of   the   individual   sermon  he 
seems  to  be  on  famihar  ground.     He  had  often  been  that 
way,  and  in  his  broad  sweep  he  never  involves  himself  m 
intricacies  or  subtleties  of  thought.     There  was,  therefore, 
the  suggestion  of  ease  about  it  all,  the  ease  of  famiharity. 
There  is  a  corresponding  clearness  of  method.     Thought 
in  its  largeness  of  outhne  comes  before  us.     All  is  appre- 
hensible and  intelKgible  even  to  the  uninstructed  mind. 
This  is  not  a  matter  of  literary  style.     It  belongs  to  the 
substance   and    the   relations   of   thought.     It   illustrates 
the  fact  that  concrete,  clearly  related  thought  in  outhne 
is  tributary  to  rhetorical  perspicuity.     About  ^  the  discus- 
sion there  may  Hnger  a  certain  suggestion  of  inadequacy. 


428  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

It  is  rather  too  large.  The  generaHzations  are  too  big. 
One  may  feel  a  lack  of  critical  acumen.  One  suspects 
that  in  such  wide-ranging  movement  much  that  is  impor- 
tant has  dropped  out  and  is  lost  sight  of.  There  is  also 
at  times  a  suggestion  of  remoteness,  we  are  taken  too  far 
afield.  We  are  always  somewhere  in  God's  great  and  good 
universe  and  it  is  always  our  Father's  house,  but  we  some- 
times find  ourselves  too  far  from  our  own  doors.  The 
preacher  does  not  always  come  near  enough  to  our  com- 
mon life.  It  is  not  always  opened  and  interpreted. 
The  preacher  Hkes  to  deal  with  the  divine  rather  than  with 
the  human  aspect  of  things,  and  with  the  exceptional 
rather  than  with  the  common  experiences.  Hence  some- 
times the  suggestion  of  unsatisfactoriness.  There  are 
every  day  experiences  that  he  does  not  touch.  The 
occasional  character  of  the  sermons  may  account  for 
this  in  part.  But  all  this  is  exceptional.  His  great 
and  tender  emotional  nature,  his  large,  human  sympathies, 
generally  force  his  great  themes  out  into  relation  with  our 
life  at  definite  touching  points  and  then  there  is  a  great 
uplift.  A  great  theme  charged  with  great  emotions  is 
brought  to  bear  upon  us  with  tremendous  vigor.  It 
storms  the  heart.  In  his  dehneations,  for  example,  of  the 
glories  of  the  heavenly  hfe,  in  his  descriptions  of  the 
experiences  of  the  dying,  his  reminders  of  the  supporting 
power  of  Christ  in  hours  of  suffering,  in  his  illustrations 
of  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  Christian  experience, 
in  his  descriptions  of  the  sufferings  of  Christ  and  of  the 
glory  of  the  cross,  we  find  the  home- speaking  quahty. 
With  such  themes  he  was  familiar.  Here  all  his  power 
of  eloquence  emerged,  and  with  perfect  poise  he  could  hold 
himself  in  the  highest  heights  which  it  is  given  human 
speech  to  reach.  To  know  the  power  of  such  themes, 
to  evoke  the  preacher's  emotional  and  imaginative  gifts, 
and  to  move  the  human  heart,  we  must  return  to  the 
men  of  a  generation  gone.     Bishop  Simpson  comes  near 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES       429 

to  US  in  scenes  that  evoke  his  pathos.  Domestic  scenes, 
the  death  scene,  the  mother  love,  the  pitiful  estate  of  the 
widow  and  the  orphan  —  these  are  among  the  sources 
of  pathos  which  we  miss  in  the  preaching  of  our  day, 
or  if  they  are  touched  we  miss  the  master's  skill. 

As  to  the  architecture  of  the  sermon  it  is  in  its  technique 
after  the  most  approved  standard.  The  introduction  is 
short,  explanatory  in  character,  or  a  generahzed  thought 
started  by  the  theme  and  running  on  to  the  exposition  of 
the  text.  By  frequent  repetition  the  text  is  kept  constantly 
before  the  mind.  The  transitions  are  skilful  and  are 
promotive  of  the  freedom  and  flow  of  the  discourse. 
The  development  is  methodical  and  never  stereotyped. 
Variety  in  the  formularies  of  transition  takes  the  place 
of  numerical  division.  He  is  a  topical  preacher,  with  a 
preference  for  the  textual  development. 

The  personahty  of  Bishop  Simpson  was  commanding. 
His  presence  was  impressive.  His  voice  was  s}Tnpathetic 
and  penetrating.  The  sincerity,  the  seriousness,  the 
dignity  of  the  man,  his  power  of  emotion  and  of  s>TTipathy, 
and  his  strength  of  moral  purpose,  —  all  were  tributary  to 
the  sometimes  overwhelming  cogency  and  persuasiveness 
of  his  speech.  His  rhetorical  style  had  steadiness  of 
movement,  stateliness,  strength,  clearness,  simphcity, 
and  dignity.  He  was  master  in  the  use  of  a  type  of 
figurative  language  with  which  the  modem  rhetorician 
is  not  at  home.  In  the  descriptive  and  narrative  style 
he  excelled  and  in  the  speech  of  pathos  and  passion  he  was 
irresistible.  We  are  often  reminded  of  Wesley  as  we  read 
his  discourses.  Mr.,  Wesley  was  the  more  cogent  in  the 
intellectual  elements  of  power.  Bishop  Simpson  in  the 
imaginative  and  emotional.  But  the  men  were  not  unhke. 
It  is  said  that  all  great  rehgious  revolutions  foster  clearness, 
simphcity,  and  directness  of  style.  Wesley's  revolution 
illustrated  this.  Bishop  Simpson's  Yale  Lectures  on 
Preaching  are   of   special  value  in  giving  us  an  insight 


430  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

into  the  sources  of  his  pulpit  power,  in  their  exaltation  of 
the  great  themes  of  the  Gospel  as  containing  the  only- 
adequate  message  for  the  preacher,  in  their  effective 
advocacy  of  the  evangehstic  type  of  preaching,  and  in  their 
many  judicious  hints  with  respect  to  the  preacher's  work 
of  preparation. 

In  his  inaugural  address  as  college  president,  when  he 
was  but  twenty-nine  years  of  age,  we  find  an  early  indica- 
tion of  his  tendency  to  grapple  with  the  broad  outhnes  of 
his  subjects,  of  which  mention  has  been  made,  and  of  the 
maturity  and  the  comprehensiveness  of  his  views  upon 
educational  problems.  In  the  address  at  the  memorial 
meeting  in  London  in  recognition  of  the  death  of  Pres- 
ident Garfield  we  have  an  illustration  of  his  power  to 
grasp  the  elements  of  a  dramatic  situation  and  of  the 
instinct  and  skill  of  the  platform  orator  in  swaying  the 
emotions  and  sympathies  of  a  vast  congregation.  His 
address  in  connection  with  the  funeral  obsequies  of 
President  Lincoln  at  Springfield,  111.,  three  weeks  after 
the  assassination,  is  a  masterpiece  of  its  kind.  He  illus- 
trates the  "touch  of  nature  that  makes  the  whole  world 
kin."  It  is  said  of  him  that  "the  human  interests  of  every 
occasion  was  instantly  perceived  by  him."  This  is  cer- 
tainly true  of  this  impressive  address.  It  touches  upon 
the  scenes,  the  experiences,  the  associations,  the  events, 
that  are  of  common  human  interest  and  that  bring  and 
bind  the  hearts  of  men  together.  In  its  orderly  movement 
to  a  cHmax  it  has  the  quality  of  the  old  classical  oration, 
and  in  its  descriptive  skill,  not  only  as  touching  outward 
scenes,  but  inner  states  of  soul  as  well,  and  in  its  elements 
of  pathos,  it  is  after  the  best  manner  of  modem  oratory. 

More  significant  for  intellectual  elevation  in  the  leader- 
ship of  the  church,  and  less  significant  in  the  sphere  of 
popular  oratory,  was  Dr.  John  McChntock,  accounted  in 
his  day  the  most  accomphshed  scholar  of  his  church.  The 
leading  representatives  of  Methodism  have  been  called 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        431 

in  the  course  of  their  public  life  to  fill  a  great  variety 
of  official  positions  and  have  developed  a  great  variety 
of  aptitudes  in  the  service  of  the  church.  Positions  of 
influence  are  always  at  its  command  and  it  has  exercised 
a  great  deal  of  wisdom  in  its  choice  of  men  to  fill  them. 
Dr.  McCUntock's  experience  in  the  service  of  his  church 
was,  like  so  many  of  its  leading  men,  wide  and  varied, 
and  he  was  able  to  exert  a  correspondingly  wide  and 
varied  and  always  salutary  influence.  As  college  professor 
he  became  an  authority  in  methods  of  teaching  the  classi- 
cal languages.  As  the  first  president  of  Drew  Theological 
Seminary  he  made  himself  known  and  felt  as  a  theological 
teacher.  He  varied  his  educational  activities  by  entering 
the  field  of  religious  journahsm  as  editorial  correspondent, 
while  in  residence  abroad,  of  one  of  the  weekly  journals 
of  the  church  and  again  as  editor  of  the  Methodist  Quarterly 
Review.  In  literature  he  is  known  as  the  author  of 
a  critique  of  Comte's  "  Philosophy,"  as  translator  of 
Neander's  "  Life  of  Christ  "  and  other  volumes  of  general 
theological  and  political  interest,  and  as  the  author 
of  various  monographs  touching  subjects  of  more  especial- 
interest  to  his  church.  His  crowning  work  was  the 
editorship  with  Dr.  Strong  of  the  Theological  Cyclopaedia, 
which  is  a  distinct  credit,  not  only  to  his  own  scholarship 
and  editorial  wisdom,  but  to  the  intellectual  life  of  the 
Methodist  church.  But  all  these  varied  gifts,  acquisitions, 
and  experiences  in  church  life  were  not  without  value 
to  his  work  as  a  preacher,  which  is  never  held  as  of 
secondary  importance  by  his  communion.  As  pastor 
in  New  York  City  and  of  the  American  Chapel  in  Paris, 
a  position  that  has  been  filled  by  some  of  the  most  gifted 
American  preachers,  and  where  he  was  able  to  do  valuable 
service  for  the  government  of  the  United  States  during 
the  Civil  War,  he  had  fruitful  experiences  in  ministerial 
life,  and  has  been  numbered,  if  not  among  the  most 
popularly  effective,  among  the  most  weighty  and  instruc- 


432  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

tive,  gracefully  cultivated,  and  graciously  winsome  preachers 
of  his  church.  "Living  Words"  is  a  pubhshed collection 
of  his  discourses,  which  in  their  elevation  of  thought  and  of 
diction  abundantly  vindicate  his  reputation  for  scholarly 
culture  and  mark  a  distinct  advance  in  the  homiletic 
ideals  of  Methodism. 

The  press  has  held  an  important  place  among  the  educa- 
tional agencies  of  Methodism,  and  the  ablest  men  of  the 
church  have  been  placed  in  its  editorial  corps.  The 
succession  from  men  hke  Durbin,  Simpson,  and  Mc- 
Clintock  is  unbroken.  Men  of  mark  still  hold  these  high 
positions  of  trust  and  of  influence.  Under  the  editorship 
of  the  Rev.  Dr.  WilHam  V.  Kelley,  the  Methodist  Review 
holds  rank  among  the  best  theological  periodicals  of  the 
country.  Dr.  Kelley  belongs  to  a  group  of  men  in  his 
church  who  have  wrought  fruitfully  in  the  field  of  htera- 
ture.  As  pastor  of  important  churches  for  many  years, 
these  hterary  gifts  found  homiletic  scope,  and  as  an  accept- 
able lecturer  in  academic  and  theological  institutions  they 
have  appeared  in  more  specific  Hterary  form. 

Dr.  Buckley,  editor  of  the  New  York  Christian  Advocate, 
has  exhibited  extraordinary  aptitude  for  clear  and  forceful 
editorial  writing,  and  is  not  less  gifted  as  a  vigorous 
and  impressive  preacher  and  a  skilful  and  pungent 
platform  orator.  His  critical  bent  is  strong,  and  his  power 
of  sarcasm  and  skill  in  repartee  are  productive  of  telling 
popular  effects.  His  analytic  method  of  deahng  with 
vexed  questions,  which  too  often  lacks  in  constructive 
quahty,  is  signally  trenchant  and  often  conclusive.  In 
detecting  and  disclosing  the  weak  side  in  popular  fallacies 
and  delusions  and  in  pointing  out  their  injurious  mental 
and  moral  consequences  he  is  skilful  and  useful.  His 
power  to  grasp  the  underlying  truth  that  would  find 
expression  in  many  of  the  delusions  of  our  time  and  to 
interpret  its  fundamental  significance  does  not  seem  to 
be  equally  great.     The  permanent  value  of  his  critical 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UxNITED  STATES       433 

products  is  lessened  by  his  controversial  and  polemical 
habit.  He  is  powerful  and  useful  as  a  detective.  He 
is  less  valuable  as  an  interpreter  of  truth. 

The  contemporary  bishops  of  the  Methodist  church 
worthily  perpetuate  its  homiletic  traditions,  and  are  a 
distinct  credit  to  its  pulpit.  Highly  efficient  as  administra- 
tive leaders,  their  influence,  as  always,  is  largely  conditioned 
by  their  power  to  impress  the  people. 

Bishop  McCabe,  who  by  his  record  as  an  army  chaplain 
during  the  Civil  War,  and  as  a  vigorous,  plain-speaking 
patriot  and  reformer,  has  won  a  country-wide  reputation, 
would  be  classed  as  among  the  most  popular  and  forceful 
as  he  is  among  the  most  fearless  preachers,  platform 
orators,  and  lecturers  in  the  official  body  to  which  he 
belongs  and  in  the  entire  church. 

Bishop  Vincent,  who  is  widely  known  for  his  intelli- 
gent interest  in  and  steadfast  devotion  to  the  work  of  Sunday- 
school  instruction,  and  for  his  enthusiastic  enterprise  and 
efficiency  in  popularizing  the  agencies  of  general  education 
through  the  Chautauqua  Institute,  is  universally  respected 
for  his  cosmopohtan  and  cathoHc  spirit,  and  is  wel- 
comed to  the  pulpits  of  all  the  churches  and  the  colleges 
of  the  country  as  a  broad-minded  and  edifying  preacher. 

Bishop  Foss,  in  his  collection  of  discourses  entitled 
"Religious  Certainties,"  one  of  a  series  of  twenty-four 
volumes  constituting  "The  Methodist  Pulpit"  illustrative 
of  the  preaching  of  Methodism,  bears  the  mark  of  an 
apologetic  preacher  of  the  modem  type.  One  finds  here 
soHdity  of  thought,  cogency  of  argument,  skill  in  historic 
illustration,  wealth  of  Christian  feehng,  devotion  to  the 
great  commanding  truths  of  Christianity,  wide  knowledge 
of  the  world,  and  a  vivacious  rhetoric.  His  type  of  rhetoric 
in  certain  notable  passages  bears  the  traditional  mark 
of  the  evangehstic  preaching  of  his  church,  and  the  sensi- 
tive critic  might  not  accept  a  brief  in  defence  of  its  classi- 
cal chasteness  or  its  conformity  to  the  highest  standards  of 

2F 


434  THE   MODERN  PULPIT 

literary  taste  in  our  time.  But  it  does  not  lack  in  elevation 
of  feeling  and  tone,  and  in  its  picturesque  and  dramatic 
impressiveness  it  doubtless  does  not  fail  of  popular  re- 
sponse. 

Bishop  McDowell  impresses  one  with  the  breadth, 
strength,  and  dignity  of  his  pulpit  utterances,  and  with 
the  entire  absence  of  the  ecclesiastical  tone.  There  is 
nothing  in  his  speech  that  advertises  his  ecclesiastical 
affiliations  or  his  ecclesiastical  nurture  and  culture. 
His  effort  to  conserve  in  modern  forms  of  thought  and 
statement  the  vital  substance  of  the  old  truths  for  which 
the  church  has  contended  is  manifest  and  is  successful. 
Stock  terms  and  standard  definitions  are  discarded. 
The  truth  is  brought  to  bear  directly  upon  men's  practical 
needs.  The  reaHty  of  the  divine  immanence  in  humanity 
and  especially  in  the  church  does  duty  in  his  hands  in 
interpreting  the  church  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Bib- 
lical revelation  cannot  supersede  the  necessity  of  an 
immediate  present  revelation  of  God  in  the  soul,  nor 
BibUcal  inspiration  supersede  the  demand  for  inspired 
men  rather  than  inspired  doctrines  in  our  day. 

The  discriminating  character  of  Bishop  McDowell's 
thought  and  the  deliberation  and  self-poise  of  his  address 
are  qualities  that  linger  in  the  remembrance  of  his  hearers. 
Few  preachers  that  address  the  student  bodies  of  the 
country  are  equal  to  him  in  strength,  dignity,  clearness, 
and  seriousness  of  tone. 

One  would  fail  worthily  to  recognize  the  significance  of 
the  Methodist  pulpit  who  should  forget  the  many  preachers, 
whether  in  prominent  or  obscure  parishes,  who  without 
ambition  for  fame,  and  without  high  official  trusts,  are 
doing  the  full  work  of  responsible  men  in  an  untoward 
age  and  are  perpetuating  the  best  traditions  of  a  noble 
church.  Their  names  need  not  be  heralded.  Their 
works  will  follow  them.  Nor  should  one  fail  gratefully 
to  acknowledge  the  contribution  this  church  has  made 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES       435 

to  Other  communions,  not  only  in  the  influence  it  has 
exerted  upon  the  character  of  their  preaching,  but  in  the 
gifts  of  its  o\Mi  sons  to  the  service  of  these  communions. 
Training  in  the  effective  type  of  pulpit  speech  to  which  the 
Methodist  church  is  heir,  combined  with  the  best  intel- 
lectual and  spiritual  culture  of  our  day,  has  yielded  a 
product  that  is  unsurpassed  in  the  pulpit  work  of  the  age. 
Nor  can  one  part  company  with  his  theme,  nor  dismiss 
from  remembrance  the  associations  into  which  he  has 
been  brought  in  wide-ranging  circles,  without  one  final 
word  of  honor  for  the  multitudes  of  noble  men  in  all  the 
communions  of  Protestant  Christendom,  who,  in  ob- 
scurity, and  with  none  to  herald  their  names,  for  the 
love  of  humanity  and  the  kingdom  of  God,  are  proclaiming 
the  great  truths  of  religion  to  a  restless,  unsatisfied,  and 
needy  generation. 


INDEX 


Adams,  William,  Presbyterian  preacher 
and  teacher,  363. 

Agnosticism,  modem,  meaning.sources, 
character,  influence  of,  56-58 ;  and 
criticism,  106,  107. 

"Aids  to  Reflection,"  Coleridge's 
interpretation  of  Kant  in,  68. 

Alexander,  Scottish  Congregational 
preacher,  297. 

AUegorizmg,  source  of,  in  eighteenth 
century,  3,  4. 

Allon,  English  Congregational  preach- 
er, cited,  239,  257  ;  compared  with 
Binney,  263;  "The  Vision  of  God 
and  other  sermons :  "    as   preacher, 


264. 


Ammon,  Kantian  rationalist  of  Dres- 
den, 149. 
Anglican  preaching,  characteristics  of, 

175-191- 

Anglicanism,  high  and  low,  influence 
of  Methodism  on,  82. 

Anselm,  scholastic  theologian,  79; 
Church's   life  of,  200. 

Arnold,  Thomas,  ethical  spirit  of,  69 ; 
historic  student,  72;  cited,  181; 
Rugby  sermons  of,  217;  influence 
of,  on  Norman  McLeod,  298;  com- 
pared with  President  Wayland,  374. 

Athanasian  Creed,  character  of,  85. 

Auberlin,  German  theologian ;  dis- 
ciple of  Bengel  and  Oethinger,  Bibli- 
cal realist,  155. 

Augustine,  dismtegration  of  his  theol- 
ogy, 85  ;  modifies  the  preaching  of 
his  day,  119,  120;  his  law  of  public 
speech,  424. 


Baptist  Churches,  American,  preach- 
ing of  the,  teaching  basis,  363,  368 ; 
emotional  fervor,  324;  "  restoration" 
movement,  364;  subjective  and 
objective  principles  in  church  life, 
365,366;  Biblical  quality  of  preach- 
ing of,  367 ;  evangelistic  quality  of, 
307,368;  comparable  with  Methodist 
preaching,  368,  370;  experimental 
quality  of,  368 ;  variety  in,  370  ; 
"close  communion"  question  of,  371 ; 
influence  of  Brown  University  and 
Newton  Theological  Seminary  on, 
376 ;  prominent  preachers  of,  371-379. 

Baptist  churches,  English,  distinguish- 
ing characteristics  of,  249 ;  Spurgeon 
and  his  followers,  250,  251;  "open 
communion,"  251;  preachers  and 
preaching  of,  252-257. 

Barnes,  Albert,  associate  of  Lyman 
Beecher,  Biblical  preacher,  363. 

Barrow,  Isaac,  compared  with  Saurin, 
39;  preaching  of  his  age,  175. 

Basserman,  editor  of  German  homi- 
letic  journal,  137. 

Baur,  Ferdinand,  German  liberals  who 
follow,  148. 

Baxter,  Richard,  compared  with 
Spener,  13,  14 ;  pastoral  evangelist, 
16;  intellectual  and  spiritual  quality 
of  preaching  of,  228 ;  work  at  Kid- 
derminster, 229. 

Beck,  Biblical  realist  of  school  of 
Bengel  and  Oethinger,  155. 

Bedell,  model  bishop,  pastoral  spirit 
of,  "  The  Pastor,"  392. 

Beecher,   H.   W.,  R.  W.  Dale's    esti- 


437 


438 


INDEX 


mate  of,  377;  influence  of,  in  modify- 
ing American  preachmg,  339. 

Beecher,  Lyman,  pioneer  in  theologi- 
cal and  homiletical  modifications, 
connection  with  Unitarian  contro- 
versy, 336;  influence  of  N.  \V. 
Taylor  on,  337;  gifts  as  preacher, 
337;  moderate  Calvinist,  338;  ethi- 
cal note  in  preaching  of,  338 ;  rhe- 
torical qualities  as  preacher,  339 ; 
compared  with  Channing,  354. 

Beet,  Joseph  A.,  exegetical  scholar  of 
English  Methodist  church,  245. 

Bengel,  and  the  Biblical  movement 
in  South  Germany,  and  Ernesti_ 
33;  his  "Gnomon,"  34. 

Bernard,  Saint,  representative  of  reli- 
gious aspects  of  scholasticism,  79. 

Beyschlag  evangeUcal  German  liberal, 
155- 

Bible,  erroneous  views  of,  in  eighteenth 
century,  2,  3. 

Biblical,  and  experimental  preach- 
ing, 101-104;  and  Christological 
preaching,  104-105 ;  and  positive 
preaching,  107;  defective  in  Angli- 
can church,  187;  character  of  Eng- 
lish Puritan  preaching,  231,  232. 

Bickersteth,  Anglican  bishop  and 
preacher  of  the  evangelical  school, 
208. 

Binney,  Thomas,  influence  in  the 
English  Congregational  churches, 
239;  on  Dr.  Maclaren,  252;  Allon's 
estimate  of,  261 ;  Dale's  estimate  of, 
261 ;  "  King's  Weigh-House  Chapel 
Sermons  "  by,  262. 

Blair,  Hugh,  Scottish  preacher  of 
"  moderate  "  school,  23  ;  literary  in- 
fluences on,  36;  model  for  French 
and  German  preachers,  36. 

Bleek,  associate  of  Nitsch  at  Bonn, 
157- 

Body,  "  mission "  preacher  of  high 
Anglicanism,  192. 

Bossuet,  characteristics  of  preaching 
of,  26. 


Bourdaloue,  characteristics  of  preach- 
ing of,  26. 

Boyd,  Archibald,  associated  with  Rob- 
ertson at  Cheltenham,  209;  as  theo- 
logian  and  preacher,  210. 

Broad  church,  American,  preachingof, 
397-399;  prominent  preachers  of, 
400-403. 

Broad  church,  English,  humanistic 
culture  of,  190;  characteristics  of, 
215 ;  preaching  and  preachers  of,  215, 
226. 

Brooke,  Stopford,  relation  to  Robert- 
son, compared  with  Martineau,  con- 
nection of.with  Anglican  church,  280 ; 
compared  with  Robertson,  281,  282, 
283;  ethical  quality  ot  preaching  of, 
282;  literary  and  spiritual  quality  of 
preaching  of,  283,  284. 

Brooks,  Phillips,  Lenten  sermons  com- 
pared with  Anglican,  176;  influence 
of  evangelical  episcopacy  on,  321; 
connection  with  Dr.  Vinton,  394; 
quoted,  394. 

Brown,  John,  estimate  of  Dr.  Mac- 
laren. 253. 

Browning,  Robert,  characteristic  poet 
of  nineteenth  century,  77. 

Buckley,  editor  of  Christian  Advocate, 
dialectical  and  polemical  vigor  of,  432. 

Bunsen,  Baron,  friend  of  J.  C.  Hare, 
217. 

Bunyan,  John,  pastoral  evangelism  of, 
16. 

Burgess,  George,  catholicity,  culture 
and  persuasiveness  of,  392. 

Burnet,  on  Anglican  clergy,  23. 

Bushnell,  Horace,  compared  with  Mo- 
sheim  as  topical  preacher,  39;  influ- 
ence of,  on  English  free  churches,  240. 

Caird,  John,  influence  of  Hegel  on,  66, 
305  ;  sermons  of  Glasgow  pastorate, 
303,  304;  compared  with  Chalmers, 
304;  "Religion  in  Common  Life," 
303 ;  discourses  of,  in  "  Scotch  Ser- 
mons," 305,  306. 


INDEX 


439 


Cairns,  cited,  51 ;  teacher  and  preach- 
er in  Scottish  United  Presbyterian 
church,  308. 

Calamay,  English  Puritan  Presbyterian 
preacher  and  theologian,  member 
of  Westminster  Assembly,  228. 

Calvin,  John,  doctrinal  and  practical 
theology  of,  85;  Puritans  followers 
of,  230. 

Cambridge  University,  connection 
with  broad  church  Anglicanism,  69. 

Campbell,  J.  R.,  classical  and  theologi- 
cal education,  ecclesiastical  connec- 
tions of,  273 ;  character  of  preaching 
of,  273,  274;  compared  with  George 
Adam  Smith,  274. 

Campbell,  McLeod,  spiritual  and  ex- 
perimental theology  of,  295 ;  com- 
pared with  Bushnell,  295;  influence 
of,  on  Norman  McLeod,  298.^ 

Candiish,  leader  in  Scotiiah  Free 
church  movement,  308.  ' 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  representative  of 
nineteenth  century  literature,  77 ;  in- 
dividualism of,  78  ;  moral  force  of,  78 ; 
influence  of,  on  preachers  of  England 
and  the  United  States,  78 ;  quoted, 
176;  influence  of,  in  Scotland,  291. 

Carpenter,  William  Boyd,  representa- 
tive of  modern  evangelical  Angli- 
canism, 212;  Hulsean  and  Hampton 
lectures,  212;  analysis  of  sermon, 
213;  expository  and  extemporaneous 
preacher,  214. 

Catholicity  and  positiveness  in  preach- 
ing, 107,  108. 

Chalmers,  Thomas,  leader  of  "  Dis- 
ruption "  movement,  284,  308;  theo- 
logical position  of,  294,  308;  prince 
of  Scottish  preachers,  299,  308. 

Channing,  William  E.,  intellectual  re- 
action against  Calvinism  of,  352 ; 
religious  reaction  of,  353;  moral  re- 
action of,  353 ;  representative  of 
hterary  interests,  353;  literary  style 
of,  354;  compared  with  Lyman 
Beecher,  354. 


Charnock,  Puritan  theologian  and 
preacher,  228. 

Christological  quality  of  modern 
preaching,  104-106. 

Chrysostom,  influences  affecting  the 
preaching  of,  modifications  in  the 
preaching  of,  19,  20. 

Church,  high  Anglican  preacher  of  St. 
Paul's,  199;  Canon  Scott  Holland's 
estimate  of,  200;  compared  with 
Newman,  Mosley,  Liddon,  and  Rob- 
ertson, 199;  scholarship  of,  200; 
friendship  with  Prof.  Gray,  200; 
writmgs  of,  "  Village  Sermons,"  201. 

Clark,  evangelical  Episcopal  bishop, 
Presbyterian  nurture,  Congregational 
affiliations,  broad  church  sympa- 
thies of,  393. 

Clarke,  William  N.,  teacher  of  doctri- 
nal theology  in  Colegate  University, 
pastorates  of,  "  Outlines  of  The- 
ology" and  "  Use  of  the  Scriptures 
in  Theology"  by,  value  as  theologian, 
power  of,  as  teacher  and  preacher, 

377- 

Claude,  leader  of  French  Protestant- 
ism, 12. 

Clifford,  John,  representative  of  mod- 
ern Baptist  churches  of  Englind,  250  ; 
education  of,  compared  with  Dr.  Bin- 
ney,  opposed  Spurgeon  in  "  Down 
Grade  "  controversy.  255;  theological 
position  of,  volume  of  sermons  by, 
character  of  preaching,  256. 

Coleridge,  Samuel  Taylor,  the  philoso- 
phy of,  68,  69;  influence  at  Cam- 
bridge, 6g ;  philosophical  broad 
churchman,  69;  Christian  pantheist, 
representative  of  the  literary  spirit  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  77 ;  J.  C. 
Hare  follower  of.  217 ;  influence  of, 
on  Norman  McLeod,  299. 

Confessionalism,  influence  of  historical 
criticism  on  German,  71;  modifica- 
tions in  German,  80,  138. 

Congregationalism,  American,  preach- 
ing of,  didactic  basis  of,  323  ;  changes 


440 


INDEX 


in,  336,  Lyman  Beecher  pioneer  in 
changes  in,  336 ;  influence  of  Andover 
Theological  Seminary  on,  343;  in- 
fluence of  Bushnell  on,  349;  modified 
doctrinal,  ethical,  rhetorical,  and  ora- 
torical character  of,  350 ;  relation  of 
"  new  theology  "  to  evangelism  of, 
350;   prominent  preachers   of,  336- 

351- 

Congregationalism,  English,  preaching 
of,  257-275;  characteristics  of,  257  ; 
training  of  ministry  of,  257 ;  com- 
pared with  American,  259;  promi- 
nent preachers  of,  259-275. 

Controversies,  in  England  in  seven- 
teenth and  eighteenth  centuries,  20. 

Conventicle,  German,  founded  by 
Spener,  12. 

Conwell,  Russell  A.,  pastor  of  institu- 
tional Baptist  church  in  Philadel- 
phia, varied  experience  and  training 
of,  success  of  as  institutional  church 
leader,  379. 

Critical  character  of  modern  preach- 
ing, 106-112. 

Criticism,  influence  of  on  modern 
preaching,  20-30. 

Cudworth,  learning  and  influence  of, 24. 

Cunningham,  leader  in  Scottish  Free 
church  movement,  308. 

Cyprian,  influence  of  the  age  on  preach- 
ing of,  119. 

Dale,  R.  W.,  compared  with  Dr.  Clif- 
ford, 256;  estimate  of  English  Con- 
gregationalism by,  258  ;  literary  and 
rhetorical  influences  on,  264 ;  doctri- 
nal preaching  of,  265 ;  compared 
with  Prof.  Park  and  Dr.  Gordon,  266 ; 
ethical  quality  in  preaching  of,  267, 
268;  evangelistic  quality  of,  269;  ele- 
ments of  power  in,  270;  estimate  of 
H.  W.  Beecher  by,  337. 

Davidson,  A.  B.,  expository  preacher 
of  Scottish  Free  church,  pupil  of 
Ewald,  309;  characteristics  of 
preaching  of,  310;   "The  Called  of 


God"  sermons  on  Biblical  charac- 
ters, examination  of,  311,  312;  com- 
pared with  Mosley,  311 ;  liturgical 
gifts  of,  311. 

Davies,  John  Llewelyn,  writer  and 
preacher  of  broad  Anglican  school, 
preaching  illustrated  by  "  The  Gospel 
in  Modern  Life,"  222. 

Dawson,  W.  J.,  zeal  for  evangelism 
of,  "  The  Reproach  of  Christ  and 
Other  Sermons"  by,  272;  elevated 
and  persuasive  character  of  preach- 
ing of,  273. 

Deism,  English,  influence  on  religion 
of,  20,  21 ;  effect  of  historical  and 
critical  movements  on,  70;  Anglican 
theology  a  relic  of,  187. 

DeKoven,  American  high  church 
zealot,  compared  with  Hobart  and 
Doane,  master  of  assemblies,  influ- 
ence is  his  school,  387. 

Descartes,  Saurin  student  of,  26. 

Disciples,  Church  of,  restoration  move- 
ment of,  rejection  of  creeds  by,  366; 
Biblical  preaching  of,  367  ;  doctrinal 
preaching  o),  368. 

Doane,  high  church  episcopal  bishop 
of  New  Jersey,  interest  of,  in  edu- 
cational affairs  of  church,  teacher, 
poetic  gifts  of,  sermons  published  in 
England  by,  preaching  of,  368. 

Doddridge,  Philip,  cited,  16;  as  hymn 
writer  and  preacher,  128. 

Dogma,  origin  of,  in  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, 4.  5. 

Do!;matism,  undermined  by  criticism, 
106. 

Dole,  Charles  E.,  Unitarian  preacher 
of  ethical  school,  357. 

Domer,  influence  of  Hegel  on,  66; 
mediating  theologian,  157. 

Drummond,  Henry,  as  evangehstic 
preacher  compared  with  English 
preachers,  270;  biography  of,  by 
George  Adam  Smith,  312. 

Durbin,  John  P.,  Methodist  preacher, 
contemporary  with  Summerfield,  ca- 


INDEX 


441 


reer  of,  as  teacher  and  administrator, 
422,  423 ;  impressional  power  of,  as 
preacher,  423;  follows  Augustin's 
oratorical  law,  426;  sermon  on 
*'  Omnipresence  of  God,"  424,  425. 
Dwight,  Timotliy,  preaching  ot,  against 
American  infidelity,  17,  23. 

Eastbum,  Episcopal  bishop,  character- 
istics of,  393. 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  religious  awaken- 
ing under,  17  ;  mystical  element  in, 
18. 

Eichhom,  critical  position  of,  35. 

Emerson,  R.  W.,  cited,  134;  liters»ry 
influence  of,  on  Alexander  Maclaren, 
254 ;  philosophical  influence  of,  on 
Theodore  Parker,  355. 

Episcopacy,  American,  liturgical  and 
homiletical  development  of,  319; 
preaching  of,  379-404;  institutional 
aspects  of,  379 ;  influence  of  Oxford 
movement  on,  379 ;  high  church 
theories  of,  380;  influence  of  high 
episcopacy  on  preaching,  381-383 ; 
preachers  of  high  episcopacy,  383- 
387 ;  tenets  of  low  episcopacy,  387- 
389;  Dean  Hodges  on  the  founding 
of  the  Episcopal  church,  389,  390; 
influence  of  low  episcopacy  on 
preaching,  390-392;  preachers  of 
low  episcopacy,  392-397 ;  tenets  of 
broad  episcopacy  and  effect  on 
preaching,  397-399 ;  prominent 
preachers  of,  400-404 ;  development 
of  episcopncy  during  the  last  half 
century,  403,  404. 

Erskine,  Thomas,  Scottish  pioneer  in 
modernizing  theology,  interest  of 
Richard  Rothe  in,  163;  compared 
with  Bushnell,  295. 

Ethics,  naturalistic  and  utilitarian, 
character  of,  in  eigliteenth  century, 
21 ;  influence  of,  on  modern  preach- 
ing, 88,  115. 

Evangelical  preaching  of  Anglican 
evangelical  school,  189 :  evangelical 


tone  of  preaching  of  English  free 
churches,   238-241. 

Evans,  Christmas,  dramatic  character 
of  preaching  of,  290. 

Experimental  quality,  in  modem 
preaching,  92-101 ;  in  preaching  of 
apostolic  church,  93:  in  preaching 
of  Roman  church,  93;  in  that  of 
English  nonconforming  churches, 
93;  experimental  preaching  and 
Christian  doctrine,  96 ;  and  Christ's 
authority,  97. 

Fairbaim,  principal  of  Mansfield  Col- 
lege, as  theologian  and  preacher,  259. 

Farrar,  Archdeacon,  wide-ranging  in- 
tellectual interests  of,  221 ;  dis- 
courses of,  221,  222 ;  compared  with 
Rugby  sermons  of  Arnold's  and 
Temple's,  222. 

Faunce,  W.  H.  R.,  president  of  Brown 
University,  university  preacher,  char- 
acteristics of,  as  preacher,  378. 

Fawcett,  Joseph,  rhetorical  and  ora- 
torical power  as  preacher,  37. 

F6nelon,  pietist  of  Gallic  church,  18. 

Finney,  Charles  G.,  ascetic  character 
of  evangelistic  preaching  of,  340 ;  lec- 
tures on  revivals,  theological  lectures 
and  sermons  of,  341. 

Flavel,  Puritan  writer  and  preacher, 
228. 

Flint,  Scottish  theologian,  cited,  295; 
address  on  apologetics  by,  307; 
sermons,  characteristics  of  preach- 
ing of,  307,  308. 

Forsyth,  principal  of  Hackney  College, 
compared  with  Dr.  Fairbaim,  Ritsch- 
lian  tendencies,  Dale's  estimate  of, 
conception  of  revelation  by,  271. 

Foss,  representative  American  Metho- 
dist preacher,  "  Religious  Certain- 
ties "  in  "  Methodist  Pulpit,"  illus- 
trative of  didactic  and  rhetorical 
character  of  preaching  of,  433. 

Francke,  successor  of  Spener  at  Halle, 
14 ;  compared  with  Lavater,  43. 


442 


INDEX 


Frazer,  practical  broad  churchman, 
contrasted  with  Canon  Liddon,  char- 
acter of  preaching  of,  219. 

Frederick  the  Great,  pairon  of  Eng- 
lish and  French  literature,  37;  cor- 
respondent and  friend  ot  Voltaire,  38. 

Free  churches,  English,  preaching  of, 
227-284;  liistoric  sources  of,  227; 
qualities  of  English  Puritan  preach- 
ing, 227-232  ;  influence  of  Wesleyan- 
ism  on,  232-235;  qualities  common 
to,  in  our  day,  235-241 ;  preaching  of 
different  free  church  communions, 
241-284. 

Free  churches,  Scottish,  294;  preach- 
ing and  preachers  of,  308-316. 

Fuller,  Richard,  Southern  Baptist 
preacher,  contemporary  with  Dr.  Wil- 
liams, character  of  preaching  of,375. 

Gallic  church,  influence  upon  upper 
classes  of  preacht- rs  of,  26. 

Goethe,  relations  of,  with  Herder,  40; 
with  Lavater,  43 ;  romanticism  of,  76. 

Gordon,  George  A.,  preeminence  of,  as 
preacher,  compared  with  Phillips 
Brooks,  350;  characteristics  of,  as 
preacher,  350,  351. 

Gough,  John  B.,  compared  with  Sum- 
merfie'.d,  421. 

Goulbum,  high  Anglican  preacher, 
connection  with  St.  Paul's,  with 
Rugby,  published  sermons  of,  char- 
acteristics of  preaching  of,  197,  198. 

Gray,  Asa,  friendship  of,  with  Dean 
Church,  200,  201. 

Greer,  David  H.,  compared  with 
Phillips  Brooks,  equipment  of,  as 
preacher,  Yale  Lectures  on  Preach- 
ing by,  401. 

Grote,  friend  and  schoolfellow  of  J.  C. 
Hare,  217. 

Gunsaulus,  Frank  W.,  allied  with  pro- 
gressive school  of  American  Congre- 
gational preachers,  compared  with 
R.  S.  Storrs,  Methodist  nurture  of, 
literary  qualities,  rhetorical   exuber- 


ance and  elevation,  "  Paths  to  Pow- 
er," occasional  discourses  of,  348, 349. 
Guthrie,  Thomas,  compared  with 
Norman  McLeod,  299 ;  leader  in 
Scottish  Free  church  movement,  308. 

Hagenbach,  German  mediating  theo- 
logian, 154. 

Hague,  Protestant  French  exiles  at 
the,  19. 

Hamann,  Faith  philosophy  of,  63. 

Hare,  Augustus  William,  author  of 
"Guesses  at  Truth,"  Alton  Barnes 
"  Sermons  to  a  Country  Congre- 
gation," qualities  as  preacher,  216. 

Hare,  Julius  Charles,  disciple  of  Cole- 
ridge, 69;  German  scholarship  of, 
216;  connection  with  distinguished 
men,  217;  "Victory  of  Faith,"  and 
"  Mission  of  the  Comforter,"  217. 

Harless,  German  preacher  and  teacher 
of  ethical  confessional  school,  work 
on  "  Christian  Ethics,"  character  of 
preaching  of,  141-143. 

Harms,  Claus,  influence  of  Schleier- 
macher  on,  65;  preacher  of  rhetori- 
cal confessional  school,  139-141 ; 
compared  with  Luther,  139;  antag- 
onist of  Reinhard's  preaching,  com- 
pared with  Tholuck  and  Spurgeon, 
140;  preaching  illustrated,  141. 

Harnack,  on  the  intellectual  and 
religious  aspects  of  scholasticism,  79 ; 
theologian  of  the  liberal  school,  153. 

Harris,  Samuel,  influence  of  Hegel  on, 
66. 

Hase,  German  liberal  with  mystical 
tendencies,  compared  with  Dr.  E. 
H.  Sears,  151. 

Hausrath,  coeditor  of  German  homi- 
letic  journal,  137. 

Heber,  English  high  church  mission- 
ary bishop,  194. 

Hegel,  twofold  influence  on  preaching 
of,  61,  64-66;  influence  of,  on  Caird 
and  Harris,  66;  influence  of,  on 
Theodore  Parker,  355. 


INDEX 


443 


Hengstenberg,  leader  in  German  con- 
fessional movement,  71 ;  polemical 
confessional  preacher,  145 ;  power  as 
public  speaker,  146. 

Herder,  compared  with  Coleridge,  69 ; 
religious  romanticist,  friend  of  Goethe 
ani  Schiller,  41;  Jean  Paul  Richter's 
estimate  of,  relation  of,  to  Kant  and 
Lessing,  estimate  of  Scriptures,  Bib- 
lical preacher,  41,  42;  influence  of 
his  rationalism,  66. 

Hilgenfeld,  coeditor  of  German  homi- 
letical  journal,  137. 

Hitchcock,  Roswell  D.,  New  England 
education  of,  connection  with  Bow- 
doin  College,  character  of  preaching 
of,  363. 

Hobart,  high  church  episcopal  bishop  of 
New  York,  interest  of,  in  educational 
affairs  of  church,  skilful  leader  and 
advocate,  character  of  discourses  in 
"  Posthumous  Works,"  384. 

Hodges,  dean  of  Cambridge  Divinity 
School,  cited,  389. 

Hofackers,  German  preachers  and 
theologians  affiliated  with  medi- 
ating school,  155. 

Holland,  dean  of  St.  Paul's,  estimate 
of    "  Tractarian  "     movement,    194 ; 
association   with   Liddon,    influence 
of  Newman   on,   204;   "  Logic   and 
Life"  examined,   204;  "Creed   and 
Character,"  205 ;    literary  style  com- 
pared with  that  of  Schleiermacher's 
"  Discourses,"  206. 
Holtzman,  coeditor  of  German  homi- 
letic    journal,     137 ;     theologian    of 
liberal  school,  153. 
Hopkins,  Episcopal  bishop  of  Vermont, 
career  of,  in  business  life,  legal  profes- 
sion, rectorship  and  bishopric,  multi- 
farious gifts  of,  force  as  high  church 
leader,  gift  for  public  speech,  385. 
Home,  C.  Sylvester,  English  Congre- 
gational preacher,  literary  and  homi- 
letic  activity  of,  270. 
Horton,  R.    F.,  mystical   tendency  of. 


235;  contributor  to  "Faith  and 
Criticism,"  271. 

Howe,  John,  preacher  and  theologfian 
of  English  Independency,  228  ;  char- 
acter of  preaching  of,  229. 

Hughes,  Hugh  Price,  representative  of 
modern  English  Methodism,  246, 
247;  work  of,  in  West  London,  247, 
248  ;  character  of  preaching  of,  248. 

Hume,  arguments  against  miracles  of, 
21,  22. 

Huntington,  Frederick  D.,  connection 
of,  with  Harvard  College  and  Uni- 
tarian Church,  400 ;  character  of 
preaching  of,  401 ;  well-known  vol- 
umes of,  "  Christian  Believing  and 
Living,"  and  "  Sermons  for  the 
People,"  401. 

Huntington,  William  R.,  homiletic,  lit- 
urgical, and  literary  culture  of,  402, 
403- 

Illumination,  period  of  the,  26;  roman- 
ticism a  phase  of  the,  37. 

Institutionalism,  illustrated  in  Angli- 
canism and  in  Anglican  preaching, 
73.  182  ff. 

Irving,  Edward,  a  perverter  of  Cole- 
ridge's philosophy,  295. 

Jacobi,  faith  philosophy  of,  63. 

Johnson,  Samuel,  literary  representa- 
tive of  the  Augustan  age,  37  ;  literary 
objectivity  of,  77. 

Johnsonian  style,  abandoned  by  mod- 
ern preachers,  131. 

Journals,  homiletic,  of  Germany,  137. 

Joweft,  successor  of  Dale  at  Birming- 
ham, Biblical  quality  of  pt'eaching 
of,  270. 

Kaftan,  representative  of  neo-Kantian 
school  of  German  liberals,  64;  a 
Ritschlian,  following  Kant  and 
Schleiermacher,  150;  Dorner's  suc- 
sessor,  150. 

Kahnis,     representative   of    moderate 


444 


INDEX 


confessional  school,  "The  Doctrine 
of  the  Holy  Spirit "  by,  variations  of, 
from  confessional  school  and  affilia- 
tions with  the  school  of  Schleier- 
macher,  140. 

Kant,  teacher  of  Herder,  41 ;  influence 
of,  on  modern  thought,  on  modern 
preaching,  theoryofknowledge  of,  61- 
63;  prepares  the  way  for  Schleier- 
macher,  64;  for  Ritschlianism,  64; 
for  Herder  and  for  Hegel,  64;  in- 
fluence of,  on  Coleridge,  68 ;  German 
liberals  who  follow,  148 ;  opponent 
of  old  rationalistic  school,  149;  me- 
diating school  who  follow,  153;  influ- 
ence of,  on  Theodore  Parker,  355. 

Keble,  sources  of  the  "  Christian 
Year,"  77. 

Kelley,  William  V.,  editor  of  Metho- 
dist Review,  literary  interests  of,  aca- 
demic and  theological  lectures  of,432. 

Ker,  leader  in  Scottish  United  Presby- 
terian church,  308. 

Kidder,  "  Homiletics  "  cited,  409. 

Kingsley,  Charles,  literary  gifts  of,  69 ; 
personal  character  and  preaching  of, 
"  Good  News  of  God,"  218. 

Kirk,  Edward  N.,  pastoral  evangelistic 
preacher,  influence  of  French  preach- 
ing on,  popular  quality  of  preaching 
of,  341. 

Kleinert,  coeditor  of  German  homi- 
letic  journal,  137. 

Knight,  professor  of  moral  philosophy 
at  St.  Andrew's,  cited,  297  ;  discourses 
of,  in  "Scotch  Sermons,"  306. 

Kostlin,  coeditor  of  German  homiletic 
journal,  137. 

Krummacher,  F.  W.,  pietistic  confes- 
sional preacher,  144 ;  pupil  of  Knapp, 
successor  to  Schleiermacher  at  Trin- 
ity Church,  published  and  translated 
works  of,  character  of  preaching  of, 
144 ;  compared  with  Spurgeon,  145. 

Lange,  German  mediating  theologian 
and  preacher,  154. 


Lavater,  Zurich  preacher  of  Spalding's 
school,  poetic  qualities  of,  friendship 
with  Goethe,  contrasted  with  Her- 
der, compared  with  Francke,  with 
Mirabeau,and  with  Rieger,  Goethe's 
and  Wieland's  estimate  of,  43-44; 
as  preacher,  Steffens'  description  of 
preaching  of,  44. 

Leibnitz,  pre-Kantian  influence  of,  26. 

Leighton,  representative  of  Episcopacy 
in  Scotland,  297. 

Leipzig  school  of  preaching,  8. 

Lessing,  pre-Kantian  influence  of,  26; 
literary  progenitor  of  Herder,  41. 

Liberalism,  English,  compared  with 
that  of  United  States,  275-276;  the- 
ology of,  276 ;  literary  qualities  of, 
276;  preachers  of,  276-284. 

Liberalism,  German,  influence  of  his- 
toric criticism  on,  71 ;  influence  of 
Schleiermacher  on,  79, 80;  preachers 
of,  148-153 ;  homiletic  characteristics 
of,  148. 

Liddon,  modified  type  of  high  Anglican 
preacher,  74  ;  oratory  of,  176 ;  use  of 
manuscript  by,  179 ;  high  church  note 
in  preaching  of,  180;  compared  with 
Church,  199;  connection  with  St. 
Paul's,  202 ;  character  of  preaching  of, 
202,  203;  student  of  homiletics  and 
oratory,  203;  Biblical  preacher, 
203. 

Lightfoot,  Biblical  scholar  of  high 
Anglicanism,  divergence  from  his 
school,  193;  philanthropy  of,  194; 
connection  with  St.  Paul's;  "Cam- 
bridge sermons,"  compared  with 
Liddon,  with  George  Adam  Smhh, 
188  ;  with  Mozley,  199. 

Literature,  English,  characteristics  and 
representatives  of,  in  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, 77  ;  in  nineteenth  century,  77  ; 
influence  of,  on  preaching,  78. 

Literature,  German,  sources  of,  75; 
influence  of,  on  preaching,  76. 

Low  Anglicanism,  characteristics  of, 
206-207  ;  influence  on  Robertson  of, 


INDEX 


445 


307 ;  characteristics  of  preaching  of, 
208 ;  prominent  preachers  of,  208-214. 

Liiclce,  associated  with  Nitsch,  Bleek, 
and  Niebuhr  at  Bonn,  157. 

Luthardt,  German  preacher  of  mod- 
erate confessional  school,  interest 
of  in  ethical  aspects  of  Christianity, 
character  of  preaching  of,  147. 

Lypsius,  German  theologian  of  liberal 
school,  153. 

Mackintosh,  discourses  of,  in  "Scotch 
Sermons,"  302. 

Maclaren,  Alexander,  representative 
English  Baptist  preacher,  compared 
with  Spurgeon,  250;  standing  of,  as 
preacher,  Joseph  Parker's  estimate 
of,  252;  influence  of  Binney  on,  252; 
Biblical  quality  of  preaching,  253; 
John  Brown's  estimate  of,  253;  liter- 
ary influences  upon,  254. 

Magee,  Anglican  evangelical  bishop 
and  archbishop,  as  preacher  com- 
pared with  Liddon  and  Wilberforce, 
as  orator  with  Gladstone,  Bright,  and 
Wendell  Phillips,  210;  extempora- 
neous preacher,  lectures  of,  on  preach- 
ing, 211;  homiletic  order,  212. 

Malebranche,  Saurin  student  of,  26. 

Manton,  Puritan  preacher,  228. 

Marheinecke,  German  liberal  theolo- 
gian and  preacher,  follower  of 
Hegel,  149;  Schleiermacher's  suc- 
cessor at  Trinity  Church,  character 
of  preaching  of,  150. 

Marshall,  Cromwell's  chaplain,  228 ; 
parliamentary  preacher,  230. 

Martensen,  Dutch  theologian  of  medi- 
ating school,  friend  of  Dorner's,  154. 

Martineau,  James,  elevated  tone  of 
preaching  of,  275 ;  "  Hours  of 
Thought  on  Sacred  Things,"  sub- 
ject-matter of,  277 ;  ethical  quality 
of,  278 ;  lyric  elegance  of  style,  278, 
279;  formal  aspects  of,  280. 

Massillon,  characteristics  of  preaching 
of,  26. 


Maurice,  F.  D.,  theologian  of  the 
Coleridge  school,  69;  intellectual 
subtlety  of,  217 ;  Lincoln's  Inn  ser- 
mons by,  218. 

McCabe,  bishop  of  American  Metho- 
dist Episcopal  church,  record  of,  in 
"  Civil  War,"  forcefulness  of,  as 
preacher  and  platform  orator,  433. 

McClintock,  scholar  of  American 
Methodist  Episcopal  church,  liter- 
ary and  theological  activities  and 
products  of,  431  ;  "  Living  Words," 
contribution  to  Methodist  homiletic 
literature,  432. 

McDowell,  bishop  of  American  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  church,  modem, 
liberal,  elevated  character  of  preach- 
ing of,  434. 

Mcllvane,  Episcopal  bishop  of  Ohio,  in- 
fluence of,  in  evangelical  school,  392. 

McLeod,  Norman,  Scottish  liberal, 
296;  influences  upon,  298,  299; 
catholicity,  many-sidedness,  philan- 
thropy, piety  of,  298,  299;  compared 
with  Kingsley,  Maurice,  Robertson, 
Guthrie,  and  Chalmers,  299 ;  charac- 
ter of  preaching  of,  300. 

McNeil,  English  Presbyterian  "  Mis- 
sioner,"  evangelistic  sermons  pub- 
lished by,  245. 

Mediating  school,  influence  of  intel- 
lectual movements  in  North  Ger- 
many in  eighteenth  century  on,  28 ; 
influence  of  historical  and  critical 
movements  on,  71 ;  modern  German 
preachers  of,  153-164;  theological 
position  of,  153-156;  prominent 
theologians  and  preachers  of,  156- 
164. 

Melville,  Henry,  preacher  of  Anglican 
evangelical  school,  208. 

Methodism,  American,  didactic  basis 
of  preaching  of,  322;  fervor  of,  324; 
contribution  to  American  preaching 
of,  404;  a  spiritual  democracy,  405; 
witnessing  church,  405,  406;  basis 
of  official  ministry,  404-407 ;  revival 


446 


INDEX 


church,  407,  408 ;  reform  church, 
410,  411 ;  ethical  element  in  preach- 
ing ot,  410,  411 ;  theological  basis  of 
preaching  of,  411,  412;  elevation  of 
ministry  of,  412,  413  ;  practical  train- 
ing of  ministry  of,  413-415  ;  influence 
of  church  life  on  preaching  of,  415- 
418 ;    prominent  preachers  of,  418- 

435. 

Methodism,  English,  influence  of 
pietism  on,  14;  influence  on  English 
preachingof  revival  of,  16, 17  ;  preach- 
ing of  modern,  245-249 ;  character- 
istics of  preaching  of,  245,  246; 
prominent   preachers  of,   246-249. 

Meyers,  English  Congregational 
preacher,  evangelistic  preaching  of, 
compared  with  that  of  Scottish 
preachers,  270. 

Mirabeau,  as  orator  compared  with 
Lavater,  44. 

Miracles,  modem  estimate  of,  54-56. 

Moderatism,    Scottish,    preaching    of, 

17.  23- 

Moody,  Dwight  L.,  compared  with 
Pres.  Finney,  340;  supported  by 
prominent  Episcopal  clergymen, 
394 ;  work  in  Scotland  of,  296. 

Moravianism,  mystical  element  of, 
influence  on  Schleiermacher  of,  68. 

Morgan,  G.  Campbell,  English  Con- 
gregational preacher,  preaching  of 
elevated  evangelistic  type,  compared 
with  best  modern  Scottish  evan- 
gelistic preaching,  270. 

Mosheim,  German  preacher  of  the 
Rambach  school,  29;  compared 
with  Tillotson,  38;  with  Bushnell, 
39;  influence  of,  in  reforming  Ger- 
man preaching,  39. 

Mozley,  James  B.,  high  Anglican  theo- 
logian and  preacher,  74;  compared 
with  Dean  Church,  199. 

Muhlenberg,  comprehensive  leader- 
ship in  Episcopal  church  of,  influ- 
ence of,  as  to  ecclesiastical,  homiletic, 
and  liturgical  interests,  400. 


Miiller,  Julius,  mediating  school  of 
German  theologians  and  preachers, 
160,  161 ;  influence  of  Schleier- 
macher on,  65 ;  of  Neander,  161 ; 
opponent  of  Halle  rationalism,  149; 
antagonist  of  Hegelianism,  161 ; 
"  The  Doctrine  of  Sin  "  by,  character 
of,  preaching  of,  161. 

Naturalism,  influence  of,  on  English 
Christianity,  21 ;  influence  of,  on 
French  Christianity,  23. 

Naturalistic  habit  of  mind,  39  ff. 

Neander,  mediating  theologian  of 
school  of  Sclileiermacher,  153;  in- 
fluence of,  on  Rothe,  163. 

Newman,  J.  H.,  conception  of  the 
understanding  compared  with  Cole- 
ridge's, 68 ;  influence  of  Thomas 
Scott  on,  71 :  literary  instincts  seen 
in  preaching  of,  73,  j-j ;  dogmatic 
earnestness  of,  184 ;  literary  influence 
of,  193 ;  relation  of,  to  Dean  Church, 
199. 

Nicoll,  W.  Robertson,  literary  and 
critical  equipment  of,  242 ;  interpre- 
ter of  modern  Presbyterian  ism,  243. 

Nippold,  coeditor  of  German  homi- 
letic journal,  137. 

Nitsch,  Karl  Immanuel,  mediating 
theologian,  influence  of  Schleier- 
macher on,  156,  157 ;  Schleier- 
macher's  estimate  of,  156;  Biblical 
and  practical  interests  of,  157 ;  com- 
pared with  Mozley,  157;  connection 
with  various  universities,  157  ;  char- 
acter of  preaching  of,  158. 

Oehler,  editor  of  German  homiletic 
journal,  137. 

Oethinger,  German  theosophist,  fol- 
lower of  Bengel,  conception  of  Chris- 
tianity, 28 ;  Auberlin  and  Beck 
followers  of,  155. 

Oratory,  forensic,  in  England,  influence 
on  Tillotson  of,  26. 

Oriel  College,  school  of  Whately,  69; 
of  Wilberforce,  196. 


INDEX 


447 


Owen,  John,  Puritan  preacher,  vice- 
chancellor  of  Oxford,  friend  of  Crom- 
well, 228. 

Oxford  movement,  72,  74 ;  in  theologi- 
cal literature,  193. 

Oxford  Union,  debates  of,  196. 

Oxford  University,  centre  of  high 
church  Anglican  movement,  193. 

Paine,  "  Tom,"  and  miracles,  21. 

Park,  Edwards,  A.,  representative  An- 
dover  preacher,  estimate  of  homi- 
letic  qualities  of  Andover  theology  by, 
343 ;  estimate  of  "great  sermons  "  by, 
344;  intellectual  and  rhetorical  ele- 
vation of  preaching  of,  345,  346. 

Parker,  Joseph,  Biblical  preaching  of, 
190;  estimate  of  Dr.  Maclaren  as 
preacher  by,  252 ;  rhetorical  charac- 
ter of  preaching  of,  259. 

Parker,  Theodore,  destructive  and 
polemical  methods  of,  philosophic 
equipment  of,  influence  of  Emerson, 
Carlyle,  Strauss,  and  Hegel  on,  355; 
personality  and  preaching  of,  356, 
357. 

Parkhurst,  new  Puritanism  of,  rhetori- 
cal and  ethical  quality  of  preaching 

of,  363.  364- 

Pascal.his  conception  of  Christianity  ,18. 

Pastoral  preaching,  illustrated  by  Puri- 
tan preachers  of  England,  228,  229. 

Pattison,  high  Anglican  bishop,  194. 

Patton,  ex-president  of  Princeton 
University,  intellectual  power  of,  as 
preacher,  blending  of  seemingly 
contradictory  qualities  in,  360,  361. 

Paulus,  German  Kantian  rationalist, 
149. 

Peabody,  Francis  G.,  representative  of 
catholic  and  spiritual  qualities  of 
Unitarian  preaching,  357. 

Pearce,  Mark  Guy,  associate  of  Price 
Hughes  at  St.  James,  West  London, 
sermons  published  by,  249. 

Pessimism,  source,  character,  and  in- 
fluence of,  58-60. 


Pfleiderer,  Otto,  follower  of  Hegel  and 
Schleiermacher,  150. 

Phelps ,  representative  Andover  preach- 
er, 343 ;  "  Theory  of  Preaching," 
elaborate  character  of,  344. 

Philanthropy,  modern,  influence  of, 
88,  89. 

Philosophy,  developments  of,  as  re- 
lated to  preaching,  60-70. 

Pietism,  best  type  of,  in  South  Ger- 
many, 32;  influence  of  rationalism 
on,  28 ;  influence  of,  on  Puritanism 
and  Methodism,  68. 

Pope,  Alexander,  representative  of  eigh- 
teenth century  English  literature,  77. 

Popular  preachmg,  illustrated  by  Puri- 
tanism, 227-230. 

Potter,  Bishop  of  Pennsylvania,  varied 
accomplishments  of,  gifts  of,  as 
preacher,  392. 

Preaching,  modern  qualities  of,  92-133. 

Preaching  of  eighteenth  century,  1-46. 

Presbyterianism,  American,  preaching 

of,  357-364- 
Presbyterianism,  English, preaching  of, 

241-245. 

Prophetic  preaching,  illustrated  by 
English  Puritanism,  230-231. 

Pulpit,  American,  317-435 '•  Anglican, 
174-226 ;  English  nonconforming, 
227-284 ;  German,  135-173 ;  Scottish, 
285-316. 

Puritanism,  preaching  of,  227-232;  de- 
cline of,  232-233 ;  influence  of  Wes- 
leyanism  on,  233-235. 

Pusey,  compared  with  Hengstenberg, 

71- 

Rainsford,  William  S..  strong  qualities 
of  preaching  of,  "  A  Preacher's  Story 
of  His  Work"  and  "Sermons 
preached  in  St  George's"  illustra- 
tive of  virility  of,  402. 

Rambach,  relation  of  to  Spener  and 
Wolff,  28  ;  predecessor  of  Mosheim 
as  reformer  of  German  preacliing,  29. 

RationaUsm,   beginnings   of   German, 


448 


INDEX 


26;  character  of  its  preaching,  27, 
40,  120;  influence  of  historic  criti- 
cism on,  70;  old  school  of,  148,  149. 

Rationality  in  preaching,  108. 

Realism  in  preaching,  109-112. 

Reformation,  Lutheran,  mystical  in- 
fluence in,  79 ;  Biblical  preaching  of, 
3,  120. 

Reinhard,  German  mediating  preacher 
of  school  of  Mosheim,  29,  39;  char- 
acter of  preaching  of,  29,  30. 

Religion,  natural,  19,  20,  21. 

Religious  life,  awakening  of,  as  related 
to  modern  preaching,  78-82. 

Re)molds,  principal  of  Chesunt  Col- 
lege, "Light  and  Peace"  sermons 
of,  in  "  Preachers  of  the  Age,"  259, 
260. 

Richter,  Jean  P.  F.,  cited,  41. 

Rieger,  George  Conrad,  Swabian 
preacher,  compared  w  ith  Luther,  14 ; 
cited,  34 ;  compared  with  Lavater,  44. 

Rieger,  Karl  Henry,  son  of  George 
Conrad,  gifts   as   Biblical   preacher, 

34- 

Ritschl,  neo-Kantian,  following  Kant 
and  Schleiermacher,  64. 

Ritschlianism,  anti-mystical  and  anti- 
metaphysical  tendencies  of,  64. 

Ritualistic  preachers,  preaching  of,  189. 

Robertson,  F.  W.,  influence  of  science 
on,  ^8  :  of  Anglican  evangelicalism, 
82;  theory  of  preaching  of,  no,  122; 
estimate  of  oratory  by,  177  ;  estimate 
of  evangelical  clergy  by,  185,  189; 
influence  of,  in  United  States,  179 ; 
conduct  of  public  worship  by,  180; 
structural  quality  in  preaching  of, 
190;  connection  with  Wiiberforce, 
I93>  195;  compared  with  Church, 
199. 

Robinson,  E.  G.,  connection  with  edu- 
cational institutions,  Yale  lectures 
on  preaching,  extemporaneous 
preacher  and  advocate  of  this 
method,  376. 

Rogers,  Guinness,  English  Congrega- 


tional preacher,  editor  of  Congrega- 
tionalht,  relation  of,  to  R.  W.  Dale, 

259- 
Rohr,  Kantian    rationalistic   preacher, 

149. 
Romaine,  influence  of,  on  Newman,  82. 
Romanism,  and  deism  and  scepticism, 

23- 

Romanticism,  phase  of  the  Illumina- 
tion, 37. 

Rothe,  Richard,  mediating  theologian 
and  preacher,  relation  to  Protestant 
Union,  155  ;  reference  to,  as  preacher, 
162-164. 

Riickert,  theologian  and  preacher  of 
mediating  school,  151. 

Ryle,  preacher  of  Anglican  evangelical 
school,  defender  of  Puritans  and 
Wesleyans,  preacher  at  Exeter  Hall, 
author  of  "  Christian  Leaders  of  the 
Last  Century,"  209. 

Salvation  Army,  relation  of,  to  English 
Methodist  church,  246;  Lightfoot 
friend  of,  194. 

Saurin,  representative  French  Protes- 
tant preacher,  19,  26;  model  for 
German  preachers,  38 ;  compared 
with  Barrow,  39. 

Savage,  J.  Minot,  Unitarian  preacher 
of  modem  ethical  school,  357, 

Schelhng,  influence  of,  on  Coleridge, 
68. 

Schenkel,  university  preacher  at  Hei- 
delberg, account  of,  152,  153. 

Schiller,  friend  of  Herder,  40;  roman- 
ticist poet,  76. 

Schleiermacher,  F.  W.  D.,  and  ration- 
alism, 40,  149;  and  Herder,  40,  42; 
relation  of,  to  Kant,  64,  79 ;  modified 
by  successors,  65,  66 ;  and  Moravian- 
ism,  68,  79;  and  Coleridge,  68; 
romanticism  of,  76 ;  German  liberals, 
followers  of,  148  ;  mediating  school, 
followers  of,  153,  163. 

Scholasticism,  philosophical  and  reli- 
gious aspects  of,  79;    remote  influ- 


INDEX 


449 


enceupon  Puritan  preaching  of.  120; 
influence  of,  on  structural  homiletics, 
125. 

Schwartz,  liberal  follower  of  Hegel  and 
Schleiermacher,  religious  tendencies 
of,  preaching  of,  152. 

Science, influence  of  on  modern  preach- 
ing, 46-60;  on  practical  life,  86;  and 
anthropology,  87. 

Scott,  Thomas,  influence  of,  on  New- 
man, 71,  82. 

Scott,  Sir  Walter,  influence  of,  in  Great 
Britain,  291. 

Scottish  preaching,  allied  with  Puritan, 
285;  educative  quality  of,  256;  com- 
pared with  Irish,  Welsh,  and  Eng- 
lish, 286-290;  Protestantism  of, 
favorable,  mental  and  political  con- 
ditions tor,  291 ;  compared  with  Ger- 
man, 292;  preaching  of  Secession 
and  Moderatism,  293;  conservative 
tendencies  of,  295 ;  "  Scotch  Ser- 
mons "  examined,  300-306 ;  promi- 
nent Presbyterian  preachers,  297- 
316. 

Secularism,  enlargement  of  sacredness 

of  life  by,  89-91. 
Selwyn,   high    church   Anglican    mis- 
sionary bishop,  194. 
Semler,  German  critic  of  rationalistic 

school,  34. 
Shedd,  translator  ofThermin's  "Elo- 
quence a  Virtue,"  148. 
Shepherd,  George,  pastoral  evangelistic 
preacher,  use  of  manuscript  by,  com- 
pared with  Samuel  Harris,  lectures 
on  preaching,  personality  of,  342; 
oratorical  equipments, rhetorical  style 

of.  343- 
Simpson,    Matthew,    examination     of 

preaching  of,  425-430. 
Skinner,  Thomas  H.,  connection  with 

educational  institutions,  translator  of 

Vinet's  "  Homiletics,"   preaching  of, 

363- 
Smith,  George  Adam,  sermon  of,  com- 
pared with  Lightfoot's,  198 ;  Biblical 


character  ot  preaching  of,  312;  ex- 
amination of  "  Forgiveness  of  Sins 
and  other  Sermons"  by,  313-316. 
South,  Robert,  as  Biblical  preacher,  36 ; 

rhetorical  style  of,  191. 
Spalding,  characteristics  of  school  of, 

27;  Lavater  a  follower  of,  43. 
Spener,  Philip  James,  founder  of  Ger- 
man pietism,  character  of  preaching 
of,  11-14. 
Spurgeon,     C.     H.,     naturalness     in 
preaching  of,  238  ;    break  with  Bap- 
tist Union  by,  250;  Pastors'  College, 
250,  251. 
Stanley,  A.  P.,  preaching  of,  218,  219. 
Steffens,  Copenhagen  pastor,  estimate 

of  Lavater  by,  44. 
Steele,  Anglican  preacher  of  Augustan 

age,  37. 
Sterling,associatedwithJ.C.  Hare,2i7. 
Sterne,   illustrates    the    degeneracy   of 

the  Anglican  church,  21. 
Stier,    Rudolph,    confessional   Biblical 
preacher,   influence   of    Bengel    on, 
character  of  preaching  of,  143. 
Stillingfleet,  learning  and  influence  of, 

in  the  Anglican  church,  24. 
Storrs,    R.     S.,   Andover     school     of 
preachers,    compared    with    H.   W. 
Beecher,   346;    oratorical  and  rhe- 
torical equipment  of,  347. 
St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  high  church  asso- 
ciations of,  197. 
Strauss,   pantheistic    Hegelianism   of, 
351 ;  German  liberals  who  follow,  148. 
Summerfield,  estimate  of  eloquence  of, 
420;  compared  with  Gough  and  with 
Whitefield,  421 ;  published  sermons 
of,  422. 
Supematuralism    and    deism,  20,  22; 

modified  conceptions  of,  54-56. 
Swift,  Dean,  illustrates    degeneracy  of 
the  church,  37. 

Tate,  headmaster  of  Rugby,  197. 
Taylor,  Jeremy,  preaching  of,  24,  36; 
popularity  of,  175. 


450 


INDEX 


Temple,  "  Education  of  the  World " 
in  "  Essays  and  Reviews,"  "  Religion 
and  Science,"  219;  Arnold's  suc- 
cessor at  Rugby,  Rugby  sermons, 
preaching  of,  220. 

Tennyson,  Alfred,  nineteenth  century 
poet,  ■]■]. 

Tertullian,  modification  in  preaching 
of,  119. 

Theology,  confounded  with  religion,  6. 

Thermin,  confessional  preacher  of 
moderate  school,  147  :  "  Eloquence 
a  Virtue,"  character  of  preaching  of, 
148. 

Thirlwall,  broad  church  Anglican 
preacher,  69;  associated  with  J.  C. 
Hare,  216,  217. 

Tholuck,  opponent  of  rationalism,  149 ; 
chief  preacher  of  mediating  school, 
158-160. 

Tillotson,  contemporary  with  classical 
French  preachers,  26;  Biblical  stu- 
dent, character  -of  preaching  of,  35 ; 
accepted  as  model  in  Germany,  37, 
38 ;  preaching  of  the  age  of,  175. 

Traditionahsm,  seen  in  quality  of 
Anglican  preaching,  182-185. 

Trench,  pupil  of  J.  C.  Hare  at  Cam- 
bridge, 217. 

Tubingen,  liberals  of  the  school  of,  149. 

Twesten,  mediating  theologian  and 
preacher,  154. 

Tyng,  Stephen  H.,  sympathy  with  evan- 
gelistic movements,  philanthropic 
interests,  395;  equipment  as  preach- 
er, published  volumes  of,  396. 


Ullman,  German  preacher  of  mediat- 
ing school,  influence  of  Schleier- 
macher  and  Neander  on,  65;  con- 
nection with  Tholuck  and  Rothe, 
founder  of  "  Studien  und  Kritiken," 
theology  of,  162. 

Unitarianisin,  American,  influence  on 
preaching  of,  120, 121 ;  preaching  and 
preachers  of,  351-357. 


Unitarianism,  English,  origin  of,  22; 
preaching  and  preachers  of,  275-284. 
United  States,  preaching  of,  317-435. 

Van  Dyke,  Henry,  artistic  character  of 
preaching  of,  364. 

Variety  in  preaching,  123-126. 

Vincent,  interest  of,  in  Sunday-school 
work,  founder  of  Chautauqua  Insti- 
tute, college  preacher,  433. 

Vinet,  "  Homiletics,"  translated  by 
Prof.  Skinner,  363. 

Vinton,  A.  H.,  educated  for  medical 
profession,  theological  and  homiletic 
gifts,connection  with  Phillips  Brooks, 
characteristics  of,  power  as  preacher, 
394- 

Voltaire,  and  deism,  23;  correspond- 
ent and  guest  of  Frederick  the 
Great,  38. 

Wardlaw,  Ralph,  representative  Con- 
gregational preacher  in  Scotland, 
297. 

Washburn,  E.  A.,  New  England  nurture 
and  culture  of,  philosophical  broad 
churchman,  influence  of  preaching 
of,  400. 

Watson,  John,  theological  views  of,  set 
forth  in  "  The  Doctrines  of  Grace," 

243.  244- 

Watts,  Isaac,  character  as  preacher, 
16 ;  as  hymn  writer,  228. 

Wayland,  Francis,  estimate  of,  371-374. 

Wegschneider,  representative  of  Ger- 
man rationalistic  school,  149. 

Wendell,  coeditor  of  German  homilet- 
ical  journal,  137. 

Wesley,  John,  influence  of  pietism  on, 
68,  81 ;  influence  of  religious  awaken- 
ing on  his  preaching,  120;  attitude  of, 
toward  lay  preaching,  406;  views  of 
ministerial  call,  415;  ascetic  habit, 
417 ;  compared  with  Bishop  Simpson, 
429. 

Westminster  Confession,  character  of, 
85-86. 


INDEX 


451 


Whately,  Aristotelian,  69;  historical 
student,  72;  representative  of  broad 
church  Anglicanism,  work  on  rhet- 
oric, preaching  of,  215-216. 

Whitefield,  as  evangelist,  17  ;  compared 
with  Lavater,  43;  inliuence  of  81; 
influence  of  Wesleyan  awakening  on 
preaching  of,  120. 

Wieland,  estimate  of  Lavater  by,  43. 

Wilberforce,  Samuel,  estimate  of,  194- 
187. 

Williams,  William  R.,  estimate  of,  as 
preacher,  in  American  Baptist 
church,  374. 

Wilson,  bishop  of  Isle  of  Man,  pro- 
moter of  Methodist  revival,  17. 

Wilson,  Archdeacon,  Anglican  broad 


churchman,  work  on  "  Pastoral  The- 
ology "  by,  186 ;  estimate  of  Anglican 
theology,  186-187;  career  and  char- 
acter as  teacher  and  preacher,  223- 
226. 

Wolff,  influence  of,  as  teacher  of  phi- 
losophy, 26. 

Wordsworth,  William,  characteristic 
nineteenth  century  poet,  77 ;  high 
churchman,  78. 

Zinzendorf,  Count,  leader  in  Moravian 
church,  14, 15  ;  representative  of  mys- 
tical idealism,  79. 

Zollikofer,  Leipzig  preacher  of  the 
Reformed  church,  representative  of 
modified  rationahsm,  27. 


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